


Build God, Then We'll Talk

by 50ShadesofGerardGay



Series: Liars and Monsters [3]
Category: Victorious
Genre: Bade - Freeform, F/M, M/M, cabbie - Freeform, tandre
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-23
Updated: 2014-11-15
Packaged: 2018-02-22 06:34:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 4
Words: 44,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2498156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/50ShadesofGerardGay/pseuds/50ShadesofGerardGay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"What a wonderful caricature of intimacy." It isn't easy to hold together a marriage, new romance, old friendships. We grow, and we change. We make mistakes that threaten to destroy the very fabric of our lives. Our past comes back to haunt us, threatening the future we could have had. We are all we have left. Mainly OC</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Yesterday's Feelings

* * *

_"Close my eyes and move to the back of my mind where worries are washed out to sea. See the changes, people's faces blurred out like the sun spots or raindrops. Left the only worries I had in my hands away from the light in my eyes. Holding tight and try not to hide how I feel, 'cause feelings mean nothing now." – The Used_

* * *

Anna Elizabeth Nicole Ragland slumped in her mother's car, her long, onyx hair hanging over her chest in ringlets to shield her from her mother and the world passing by her on the right.

She didn't even want to look at her mother at the moment. 'Hate' wouldn't even begin to cover the strong emotion she felt toward this vile woman.

This terrible excuse of a mother had ripped Anna Elizabeth from her home, her friends, and her family all because she got a stupid boyfriend.

She had no doubt her mother was jealous. Who could ever love her anyway? Laura Jean Ragland spent all of her money on breast implants, butt implants, lip injections, rhinoplasty, and obviously synthetic red hair dye, and her daughter wondered if there was any real woman beneath the plastic. She'd never even seen her with a man.

Everything about Paul, her now  _ex_ -boyfriend, was amazing, and she was certain she would never find anyone like him again.

He was tall—but then again,  _everyone_  was compared to her unbearably short stature—and incredibly handsome. He had a long, slender nose, big blue eyes, and a full head of dark hair. He was strong, had an amazing smile, a stunning build, and he was on the varsity football team.

She met him during cheerleading practice, freshman year. The gym had been flooded the week before, so the cheerleaders had to practice on the designated pole vault field, separated from the football field by the four-lane cross-country practice track.

It was her first official practice after making the squad, and the football players decided to play a joke on the new girls as part of their 'initiation.' It was tradition that the new JV members would mysteriously flood the gym so that the cheerleaders would have to practice outside. While the cheer captains were going over the first moves, the boys snuck quietly across the field. The girls were about to start their routine, and the boys rushed the final distance to scoop them up. It was the job of the new recruits to get the new girls while the others grabbed their power couple girlfriends, and Paul had effortless picked up before anyone else could. He was, perhaps, one of the fastest runners her school had seen in thirty years.

While all the other girls screamed when they were lifted off the ground, she had buried her face into her pompoms, pressing them against his chest. She stayed that way as he carried her the length of the football field and back, terrified to say anything. When he finally put her down, he asked her why she didn't scream. She kept it simple, telling him she just wasn't a screamer.

As a freshman, Anna Elizabeth had been very shy, and it was a miracle that she'd even made it on the cheer squad. If not for her overbearing mother, she wouldn't have even tried out in the first place; it was either that or go back to beauty pageants…

She had been looking down at her feet as she spoke to him, and her timidity intrigued him. When he'd seen her face, he could see how innocent she was, and had the strongest feeling that she would be undoubtedly beautiful if she learned to open up. Right then and there, he knew he wanted to be the one to help her do that, to which she skeptically agreed.

They dated all throughout freshman year, and it wasn't until their first month of sophomore year that they shared their first 'I love you.' He was her first love, and he helped her be the bubbly, lively girl she was today. She never told her mother about him, always said she was out with the squad, and he took her virginity. She felt safe with him, and he was the best thing in her life.

She'd been extremely careful not to let her mother know of her relationship with Paul since Laura made it explicitly clear that she didn't want her daughter to date until she graduated college—and even hit her with a broken Prada pump when she expressed her interest in a boy back in middle school—but she'd slipped up by texting him too frequently while around her mother. When Laura snatched her daughter's phone, she threw it to the ground and crushed it beneath Louis Viton stilettos after seeing who was on the other end.

Anna Elizabeth held no doubt in her mind that they were moving because of Paul. But Laura's excuse: it was time for her to meet her father.

What a crock.

Why had they waited 16 years to see him? Why would he even want to see them anyway? She hadn't heard a thing from him in all her years on this planet, so why even would he bother with them now?

There was a reason he wasn't with her mother.

She couldn't even talk to Paul before they left, and now she wondered what he was up to. She tried to be rational about the breakup. He was a senior, so he would be going off to college soon. His dream was to play for the Patriots, so there was no doubt he'd go to a school in New England if he got a scholarship.

So now she had a house with her mother in Glendale—where her dad was nowhere to be found—and she was on her way to a prestigious art school that her mother had given a hefty donation to in order for her to attend. She did research on the school the night before they moved, and students had to  _audition_  to get into the school. While she wouldn't have minded showcasing off her paintings, especially the ones that she could craft in short amounts of time, she was glad that she didn't have to go through with the whole pageant ordeal again.

For some strange reason, her mother had given her the option of going to Hollywood Arts  _or_  going to a different LA based high school, but she would have to go back into beauty pageants if she chose the latter.

It was almost as if her mother knew which option she'd choose…

She kept trying to look on the positive side of her new situation: this would be unlike any other high school since it offered some traditional classes as well as acting, dancing, singing, and any other artistic thing she could possibly think of. She wouldn't let her mom see how excited she was to attend this new school, so she reminded herself that no matter how great the school itself was, she wouldn't find anyone like Paul.

* * *

_Today I've wasted away, for today is on my mind._

* * *

By the time the Darla and Jensen West-Oliver reached middle school, they had already made their own names for themselves. Their parents had enrolled them in the Hollywood Arts' middle school branch that opened in 2017, and they quickly had to separate themselves from their legendary parents' good names.

Jensen lost the majority of his hearing by age twelve, so he kept to himself most of the time to stay away from the hassles of everyday conversation. He was never really able to perfect his speech, to pass off as a 'normal' boy, so he stuck to sign language when he could get away with it. He grew to be snarky and reserved just like his mother, but he was always respectful to the adults in his home.

He wasn't entirely a bad boy, but his mother's terrifying reputation preceded him, giving him the relaxingly sequestered façade. And though he couldn't hear well, he became very interested in tech production and behind the scenes work. He began working on tech production when he was thirteen—with the help of his mother's cinematic friends—and was able to produce top quality results by the time he auditioned to get into the high school branch, making his mother's history and wealth irrelevant.

If anything, Beck and Jade expected Darla to act like her mother. Instead, she adopted her father's laid back style and grew up to be one of the boys. She kept her hair short and took up skateboarding by the time she was thirteen. She refused to wear dresses and was a very outspoken, charismatic girl who proudly showed off her inherited parents' acting genius as well as her own drumming talents.

Like her father, Darla had nothing short of a positive outlook on life, always ready to greet the day. Unlike her brooding brother, she readily showed her excitement to start junior year. She was ready for her classes, to see her friends, to have fun.

And for her, having fun means hanging out with her skater friends at the mall before school.

Because of his hearing, Jade never felt comfortable with her son driving by himself, but her daughter was a bit rebellious and would always ride a block away from home before getting out and heading off to the mall.

As per usual, she sped to the mall to meet up with her closest friends, Jordan, Tyler, and Connor. By the time she got there, the boys were already doing tricks on the railings and flying off the stairs, much to the disappointment of other mall patrons.

Jordan spotted her first and waved her over, picking up two differently sized cups of coffee before gliding down the handicap ramp to meet her halfway. "Hey, D," he greeted as he skidded to a stop in the parking lot.

"Mista J," she returned with a nod, wink, and click of her tongue. (When she was eight, she found her Uncle Robbie's collections of comic books…and other things little girls should never see…and her eyes landed on the Batman collection. She fell in love with the villain Harley Quinn, quickly taking her on as an idol for her carefree attitude, crazy life, and quirky mannerisms. It took Jordan a while to get used to the nickname, but he probably would have let her call him anything.)

He handed her the bigger of the two coffee cups, beaming at her bright smile as she took it. "Tall mocha, extra mocha," he announced. "Plus one pack of sugar sprinkled on the whipped cream." Her favorite.

"Yum," she hummed, taking a sip. She marveled in the rich flavor, savoring every drop. Her brother hated coffee—and nearly broke his mom's heart—so he would put up a fight every time she wanted to go through the drive-thru on the way to school. And like her mother, her day gets a little better with each sip. "You didn't have to get it for me."

Jordan shrugged, taking a sip of his own coffee. "I figured 'why not?'" he waved off. He held up his wrist to check the time. "We got twenty 'til meltdown and Tyler's dad is going out of town for the week, so the shop's closed."

Tyler's dad owned the big instrument shop in the mall where the four of them met. Tyler had been working one summer when the others decided to drop by. His dad had a 'Play Before You Buy' policy, so he encouraged Darla to try her hand at the drums when he caught her admiring the finest set in the store. Seizing his opportunity, Jordan snatched up a base guitar and started strumming away as she played. Tyler and Connor followed suit, picking up an electric and rhythm guitar, respectively. For ten minutes, they put on a show and received a hefty amount of applause.

Since then, they spent their afterschool hours practicing until they were ready to drop out of school and start an international rock band.

"I like boarding anyway," Darla smiled, kicking off and speeding past her friend.

Jordan quickly turned around to skate after her. Once he reached the steps, he stomped his foot onto the back of the board, sending it flying into the air before catching it effortlessly and joining her as she sat on one of the large plants in even larger marble, square pots and crossed her legs. Setting his board and coffee down, he ran a hand over his buzzed ginger hair. "So you wanna do something this weekend?" he asked quietly, not sure she even heard him.

She hooted in excitement, her eyes locked on Connor as he landed a 360 spin off the stair railing. She turned to Jordan, taking another sip of her coffee. "What did you say?" she asked with an inquisitively raised brow that mimicked her mother's.

He shook his head. "Nothing," he replied, trying to play it off. His face jumped into a static smile as he tried to think of a way to change the subject. He pointed to one of the walls blocking off a set of large Dumpsters. "Hey, I dare you to do a Caballerial backside off that wall. If you live, I'll buy you lunch for the next week."

She smirked and stood, setting her coffee down where she sat and letting her bag drop to the ground as she slipped it off. Confidently, she placed her left foot on her skateboard, preparing to push off with her right. "Prepare to lose your lunch money," she challenged as she kicked off. Her board rattled slightly as she rolled down the stairs, the feeling she loved. She circled around the wall briefly to gain momentum. When she was ready to perform the trick, she skated as fast as she could toward the wall. She jumped off the board, pressing all her weight against the back of it to get it to flip, towards the wall. Her foot briefly touched it and she bounced off it back onto the board as it was about to hit the ground.

But as she tried to stick her landing, she lost her balance. She flew forward and managed to turn her body to literally save face as her back smashed into a parked car yards away. She bumped her head and held it, groaning in pain as she clenched her eyes shut.

"Are you okay?" presumably the car's owner asked worriedly as he slammed his door and ran around the front to see her.

She groaned again, this time softer, and nodded. "I will be," she answered. "Sorry about your car." She opened her eyes to look at him and froze. Everything around him seems to melt away as she took in his presence. He was the first incredibly gorgeous Asian boy she's seen since she met South Korean pop star T.O.P. after he worked on a movie with her mom two years ago. His light brown hair was short, but his blond-frosted tips spiked in the front, making his daring green eyes shine just a little bit brighter. Even hunched over and knelt in front of her, she felt she could accurately distinguish his very tall and delightfully muscular—at least in the arm department—stature. If she could take her eyes off his face, she would notice his T-shirt with her favorite band, Dead By April, plastered on the front.

He smiled down at her warmly. "How about you make it up to me by letting me take you out for breakfast?" he suggested as he offered her his hand.

She giggled slightly, her mouth falling into a goofy shape, as she took his hand and he pulled her up. "I have school," she told him softly.

With a small smirk, he kept his eyes locked onto hers. "Lunch, then. Has anyone told you that you have the most intriguing eyes?"

She blushed slightly and looked away. "Y-yeah," she answered meekly. She looked back to him in shock. "A-about lunch. Not my eyes." She looked down in embarrassment to find that she was still holding his hand. She snatched her hand back and shoved it into her pocket. "Sorry."

"D, let's go!" Jordan called from the steps. He waves her skateboard over his head. "We're gonna be late."

"I…have to go," she reluctantly said, turning back to the handsome man in front of her. She grabbed the pen clipped to the neck of his shirt and grabbed his hand again. "Text me and we'll figure something out for lunch," she said confidently as she scribbled her first name and number onto his arm. She clipped his pen back to his shirt, quickly stealing another glance at his gorgeous face.

"Come on!" Jordan shouted.

She waved goodbye and rushed around him to meet her friend without another word.

"Were you flirting with that guy?" Jordan questioned as he handed over her book bag, coffee, and board.

She laughed as she pulled her bag on, stepping onto her board. "Jealous?" she taunted as she pushed off after Tyler and Connor. She and Jordan turn back to the guy who now leaned against his white Sedan with his arms crossed coolly. She smiled to herself, trying to mask her excitement.

* * *

_Today I've wasted away, for today is on my mind._

* * *

Erica Michaels sat with her cousin Hector in the Asphalt Café with her legs crossed and her pencil tapping her notebook rhythmically. "What about her?" she asked in a thick Australian accent, pointing the pencil at a blonde at the other end of the Café laughing with her friends.

"Too small," Hector passed off. "Giselle has to look  _bold_. She's a fighter and a queen. That girl barely looks like a princess."

His cousin pursed her lips, trying to think of someone else. Scanning the crowd of students, she spotted a group of dancers practicing by the stairwell that led to the elevated stage at the center of the Café. "What about Jenny Halpern?" she asked, pointing her pen at a brunette in the middle of a backflip. "Dancers are fighters."

"Not pretty enough," he disregarded, following Erica's gaze.

"We're never going to find anyone if you keep being so picky," she pointed out tiredly.

"I have to pick the perfect girl!" he cried dramatically, slamming his hands down on the table. "I can't have some amateur ruining my movie!"

She rolled her eyes. "Then pick someone," she spat. "We'll never meet the deadline at this rate."

Determined, he looked around the dining area, his eyes falling a petite girl with long, curly black hair walking into the Café as she looked down at the books she carried in front of her waist. She looked up, scanning the crowd, and he gasped. "Her!" he exclaimed, discreetly pointing to the girl. "She's perfect!"

Erica rolled her eyes. "What happened to 'she's too small; Giselle has to look like a fighter and a queen'?"

"That girl is stunning," Hector breathed, keeping his eyes on her.

"She looks like a freshman."

"Doesn't matter…"

"Look out!" Darla shouted as started to make his way to the mystery girl. She sped through the gate into the Asphalt Café, frightening the girl. Terrified, she fell back as Darla bumped into her. While Darla just stumbled to a stop, her board crashing into a nearby table, the small-framed girl landed in Jensen's lap, knocking his sketchbook off the table.

She looked up at him with frightened eyes and quickly regained her composure as laughter began to rise around them. "I'm so sorry!" she apologized with a hint of a Southern accent. "I swear I didn't mean it."

At first, he narrowed his eyes to focus on her lips to make out what she said, and then he nodded after catching only the last three words. "It's fine," he told her lowly, thankful he could speak somewhat normally. It's easier if he doesn't talk too loud. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she answered with a sweet smile, her face reddening.

As he turned to pick up his sketchbook, the bell rang and she gasped. She quickly gathered up her stuff, bouncing slightly as she prepared to leave. "Sorry again!" she apologized once more. But because he wasn't looking, he didn't hear her.

After waving goodbye to her friends and retrieving her skateboard, Darla tapped her brother on the shoulder. Sketchbook in hand, he looked to her with a raised brow and scowl, just as his mother would. Shifting her stuff around, she signed 'class' and pointed to the school's back door. He gave her a lazy thumbs up and shrugged on his bag, following her inside.

* * *

_Today I've wasted away, for today is on my mind._

* * *

Like always, Darla made sure to be one of the first to get to class so she could get a good seat. She's not one to sit in the front, but she hates being in the back of the classroom. She claimed a seat in the middle of the classroom where she was sure the teacher would see. As other students filed into the room, she caught a glimpse of the tiny raven-haired girl that she bumped into earlier.

Excitedly, she raised her hand. "Hey, girl I knocked over!" she called. The startled teen, among other students, looked at her in confusion. A grin plastered from ear to ear, she waved the girl over. "Come sit with me! Promise I won't knock you into my brother again." She bats her eyelashes and the girl laughs, walking over to join the young West-Oliver girl.

"Hi," the new girl greeted in a sheepish, deeply Southern voice.

"I'm sorry about earlier," Darla apologized, toning down her smile a bit. "One of my friends was trying to be funny and made me trip. It was lucky that I dropped my coffee before I ran into you."

The girl beside her laughed. "I always keep a change of clothes in case something crazy happens," she announced.

"Practical," Darla nodded sharply. "I like that. What's your name?"

"Anna Elizabeth," she answered.

Darla's face lit up. "Two first names?" she repeated in surprise. "I'm liking you even more!" She offered Anna Elizabeth her hand. "I'm Darla."

"Did you say that was your brother?" Anna Elizabeth questioned, cutting to the chase while still taking her new friend's hand.

"Twin," she corrected with a nod.

Anna Elizabeth's eyes widened in surprise. "I…never would have guessed that," she announces suspiciously.

"I look more like our dad and he's practically the spitting image of our mom," her new friend explained. "We're mixed."

Anna Elizabeth nodded in understanding. "He's a really good drawer," she complimented.

Darla smiled. "He's been doing it since we were ten," she announced. "He got in for tech production, but he also wants to go into set design."

"What did you get in for?" Anna Elizabeth questioned.

"Acting," she answered. "But I'm also the drummer for a band my friends and I are trying to start."

The smaller, raven-tressed teen gasped. "That's so cool!" she exclaimed excitedly. "I got in for singing, but I don't think I'd be ready to be in a band just yet."

Her friend shrugged. "A little bit of nervousness is good sometimes," she offered. "Right now, we're just a group of four playing in the back of a music shop. But if you're interested, you should come to one of our rehearsals and sing for us. We're kind of playing with the idea of having two lead singers."

"Like Mayday Parade," Anna Elizabeth mused breathily, her face alight.

Darla scrunched her face in confusion. "Who?"

Anna Elizabeth shook her head. "Just this old band my mama showed me a few years ago," she responded. "But I guess I could try it out."

"Great!" Darla cheered as their teacher entered the room and ordered attention. She lowered her voice to a whisper. "We'll talk about it more at lunch. Meet me at the stairwell in the Asphalt Café."

"The what?" Anna Elizabeth hissed back in confusion.

"Where I bumped into you," Darla whispered back in a fluster.

"Kay, kay!"

* * *

_Today I've wasted away, for today is on my mind._

* * *

"This is Anna Elizabeth," Darla announced as they took the last remaining seats at the table that Jensen, Erica, Hector, Jordan, Tyler, and Connor had already claimed. She put her stuff down to sign as she spoke. "She just moved here from North Carolina."

"That's quite a way," Erica gaped, her eyes slightly bulging.

Anna Elizabeth shrugged. "Mama just wanted a change of scenery."

"It's a good thing she did," Hector quipped from beside his cousin, trying to flirt.

"Where's Tony?" Darla questioned and signed as she looked around.

"Probably looking for some  _gringas_ ," Hector jested under his breath, picking at his pizza.

Erica rolled her eyes. "You're  _barely_  half Spanish," she reminded him.

"And you're only half American," he sneered back.

Darla loaded a grape from her fruit salad onto a spoon and catapulted it at the sophomore. "Play nice you two," she admonished. Her phone buzzed in her pocket and her eyes brightened, much to Jordan's visible dismay. The ginger looked on in jealousy as she furiously clicked away at her touch screen. "I'll see you guys later." She quickly gathered her stuff and slunk off to the gate of the Café. Making sure no one was looking, she unlocked it and slipped through the opening, putting the lock back in its place.

"Hey," she greeted with a warm smile as Mason—the guy whose car she fell against at the mall—climbed out of his car.

"Hey, yourself," he returned. His face fell when his eyes fell on the fruit salad in her hands. "It doesn't count if you bring your lunch."

She gawked at him for a moment, and then her face exploded with realization. "I was…I—"

"It's fine," he laughed off. "I can get something and take you to the park if you want."

She pursed her lips skeptically. "I'm not really supposed to be leaving campus," she told him uneasily. "I could get in a lot of trouble."

"Come on," he urged, "We'll be back before your lunch period is over. I have a class at one anyway."

Still unsure, she looks back at the gate. No one will miss her  _that_ much, right? After all, she just introduced Anna Elizabeth to her friends; she can keep them company in her absence. Her Auntie Cat told her all the time how her mom would skip school and come back without getting caught. It'll only be this once.

She would be back before anyone realized she was gone.

"O-okay," she stammered out.

Mason stepped over to open the passenger's door for her and she climbed into his Sedan with a slightly embarrassed smile. He quickly jogged around the hood to get in the driver's seat.

"This is a really nice car," she complimented quietly as he pulled away from the safety and security of Hollywood Arts.

"My parents got it for me as a graduation gift," he told her.

"What do they do?"

"My dad's a doctor and my mom's a museum curator," he answered somewhat boastfully. "I'm going to school to be a doctor like him."

She turned to him, slightly confused. "You haven't thought of doing anything else?"

He shrugged. "I'll be doing good in the long run," he assured her. "I'm not really good at anything unrelated to science, so why not?"

"That's an interesting way to look at it," she said, turning back to the fruit salad she clung to in her hands. She kept her lips pressed shut out of fear of her unnerving nervousness threatening to make her puke all over the leather interior.

* * *

_Today I've wasted away, for today is on my mind._

* * *

Over the course of the lunch period, Jensen practically strained trying to figure out what everyone was saying. It wasn't common knowledge that he couldn't hear, and he was somewhat grateful that he could hide his cochlear implant beneath his hair. He wished Tony was there to sign for him, but God knew where that kid was.

Everyone just thought that Darla signed when she speaks because she's really interested in the language and wants to continuously practice.

In a way, he hated that Anna Elizabeth was so popular among everyone at the table. It sucked that he couldn't keep up with the conversation and that he had to take a few extra seconds before he could answer a question she threw at him. And she seemed to be asking him a lot.

Where the hell did his sister go?

After half an hour of trying to make it through the discussion at the lunch table, Jensen got over it and refused to put up with his unintentional exclusion any longer. He closed his eyes and ran a hand through his hair to calm down.

It always ticked him off when he felt left out.

"I'll be in the Black Box," he announced as he hoisted his bag onto one shoulder. He scooped up his lunch in one hand and left without another word.

Dejectedly, Anna Elizabeth looked on after him. She'd been the last one to speak before his outburst. "Was it something I said?"

Everyone else at the table laughed at her apparent joke and went on with their conversations. And from that point on, she simply sat nervously in her seat. When someone tried to talk to her, she'd give quiet, concise answers. Eventually, everyone but Hector—who couldn't help trying to flirt with her even though she turned down his movie proposal—gave up on trying to talk to her. She was glad that Erica was there to keep the boy in line. She hated that she'd made this boy so upset today; she had never made a bad impression on someone before, and her years of pageant work hadn't prepared her for it. She felt like a failure and she couldn't stop herself from reaching under the table and sliding her dress slightly above her knee to scratch at it, a maladaptive habit she picked up when she first started doing pageants.

She kept wondering where her new friend was; she wanted to talk about Jensen since Darla was technically her only friend, but she was virtually alone at the table.

More than anything, she wished she had Paul.

Five minutes before lunch ended, she gathered her things and muttered a defeated goodbye before leaving the group. She needed to stop thinking about him, so she would busy herself with excavating the school for her next class and a good seat.

"Anna Liz!" Darla called out as she ran up to her tiny friend. "Where are you going?"

"I'm just gonna go wait for class," she answered in a slightly off-put voice. "We weren't really hitting it off." She mentally scolded herself for indirectly talking about Jensen instead of the entire group of people, but luckily her friend wouldn't know.

Darla locked her arm with her new friend. "It'll just take some time," she assured her. "Sorry I ran off like that; I kinda had a date."

"Ooh," Anna Elizabeth gushed in her high pitched, Southern voice as the girls headed back into the school. "A date with a  _boy_?"

"Yes, ma'am," she answered with a bright grin. "I met him today."

Anna Elizabeth wiped one of her eyes with a small laugh. "My, oh my," she breathed, "You're gonna make me cry." She sighed softly, fighting off a sniffle. "Sorry. I just moved here, and I had to leave my boyfriend back home and I've been trying way too hard to not think about him."

"Aww," Darla empathized, "I'm so sorry. I guess that's pretty hard. If it makes you feel better, I've never had one before. So if all goes well, he'll be my first."

The fourth period bell rang and Anna Elizabeth jumped slightly before pulling her schedule from her purse. "I have Acting with Ms. Connolly next," she read.

"That's the last door on the right," her friend announced.

"Thanks," she breathed with a warm smile. "See ya later, alligator." She unlocked her arm from Darla's and skipped down the hall as other students begin to fill the small space.

* * *

_Today I've wasted away, for today is on my mind._

* * *

Anna Elizabeth sighed as she crossed her legs, tapping her pencil lightly on her desk. She stared out the window to her left, grateful she was able to get the window seat in the front of the classroom.

As much as she tried not to, she kept thinking about Paul. She wanted him to hold her again, to kiss her again, and to even make love to her the way he used to in the back of his pickup.

She didn't think it would happen so fast, but Jensen took her mind off him for the briefest of moments. But then she did something to make him upset with her—whatever it was—and now her mind was back on Paul.

When all the other students piled into the classroom, she lowered her head and shielded her face with her hands as Hector sauntered in. He was starting to become a pest, but she was too nice to tell him to buzz off.

Luckily for her, though she didn't see, Jensen intercepted him before he could take the only seat beside her. With a small scowl, Hector skulked off to the other end of the room to get as far away from the intimidating West-Oliver boy as possible.

"Hi," Jensen greeted as he sat down.

Bewildered, her head snapped up and she looked to him. She gasped and quickly covered her mouth to stifle it. "Hi," she returned after she dropped her hand, lowering her eyes to the notebook in front of her. Her hand slid beneath the table of her desk and she began to scratch her leg above the fabric of her knee-length blue dress again.

"Sorry about lunch," he apologized, trying to speak faster than his normal, mild-paced speech. Hopefully he wouldn't trip up.

"It's fine," she waved off, keeping her gaze on the notebook. He struggled to read her lips, but said nothing. "I didn't expect to make a lot of friends."

"Are you busy after school?" he asked, hoping to change the subject to make up for what he missed.

She looked back to him in slight confusion, and his face softened when he could clearly see her mouth. "Not really," she answered skeptically, "But I wanted to find the art studio and see if they'll let me set up some of my stuff, and then your sister wants me to come to meet her band."

He fought back an annoyed sigh, a little miffed that the commotion around him distracted him and made it difficult to catch everything. "What do you do?" he asked, hoping the question made sense with the topic.

"Paint," she answered with a smile.

"Can I see sometime?" he questioned, his face lighting up slightly. Undoubtedly, he loved girls that were interested in art.

Her face fell slightly. She'd never let anyone see her paintings, and Paul never really asked about them. Her mom bought all of her supplies, but she never once asked to see any results outside of what she showcased in pageants either.

"S-sure," she stammered out. "Can you show me where the art studio is after school?"

With a small smirk, Jensen nodded. "Meet me by the Café."

* * *

_Today I've wasted away, for today is on my mind._

* * *

She couldn't stop thinking about him.

She noticed the way his eyes watched her mouth move when she spoke, and the determination in his gaze implied that he wanted to kiss her. She wasn't sure, though; she was kind of bad at reading a boy's body language.

He didn't talk to her that much at lunch…he didn't talk to her at all, really. But then he decided he wanted to talk to her in class? What if that was something douchebags did? Paul told her how most of the guys on the team would be nice to girls in private while practically shunning them in public.

Did a classroom setting count as public? Or did 'public' mean 'in front of his friends?'

As the minutes ticked away in her culinary class, her hand slunk down to her leg and she started to scratch again. What would she say to him? Should she get Darla to come too? Why do boys have to be complicated?

When the final bell rang, Anna Elizabeth jumped in her seat. Slowly, she gathered her things and stood. She crossed her arms as she walked, scratching the bottom of one of them as she made her way to the entrance of the Asphalt Café.

As she rounded the corner, she spotted Jensen leaning against the wall looking for her. Suddenly, she wasn't ready to talk to him anymore. Her worries from earlier had returned, but she had to trust Darla right? She seemed nice enough, so she would have said something if her brother was a douchebag, right?

He scanned his radius, his piercing blue eyes flying over her, and—for once in her life—she was glad for the four-foot-eight stature that made her shorter than everyone around her. Unfortunately, the tall boy that blocked her verged left and Jensen raised his hand to wave coolly at her.

She plastered on one of her pageant smiles to hide her unease as he shoved his hands into his pockets and sauntered up to her. He smiled back to her, and it looked legitimately genuine. Hopefully this wouldn't end badly.

"I have to stop by my locker first," she announced as she turned around to lead the way. Holding in a sigh, he wanted to ask her to repeat what she said, but he knew how annoyed people could get and he'd hate to see her get angry with him—even though he doubted she knew what that emotion was.

Slightly confused, he wordlessly followed her. When she started to lead him down a corridor that increased the distance between them and the art studio, he stopped. "Where are you going?" he questioned loudly.

Anna Elizabeth turned around with confused and narrowed eyes. "I said I needed to go to my locker," she repeated, her voice slightly filled with hurt. "Weren't you listening?"

Slightly embarrassed, he looked away from her.

"Jen!" Tony called, running up to his friend and saving him from further embarrassment. Once beside his friend, he gave Anna Elizabeth a quick once over before turning his attention back to the blond. "I've been looking for you all day." He also signed as he spoke.

"Can you cut that out, Tony?" Jensen urged with a pointed stare, hoping he would take the hint. "Darla isn't here."

"S-sorry," the other boy stammered, slightly taken aback. "I'm just…so used to helping Darla practice." His eyes shifted to the tiny black-haired girl when she turned to open her locker and Jensen nodded. Tony nodded in understanding, making sure his friend could see his mouth before speaking again. "I haven't seen you all day. Thought you finally said screw this and dropped out."

Jensen faked a laugh, catching only part of what his friend said. "I was just going to the studio," he announced.

Tony nods. "Well, can you stop by my place later?" he asked, trying to act normally. He had the urge to speak slowly and over-enunciate since he was forbidden to sign, but he learned that it's harder for Deaf people to follow when someone does that. "Hector wants us to be in his stupid movie."

"He asked me about that," Anna Elizabeth piped up as she closed her locker, holding a large cardboard roll. "I think he was just trying to flirt with me, though."

Tony scoffed and crossed his arms. "He tends to do that," he announced. "You should humor him; he's trying to get into the directing program here and he wants to go ahead and put his submission in."

"I don't know," she retorted apprehensively, "I'm a little camera shy."

"I don't see why," he responded coolly. "Hector only flirts with pretty girls." He clapped Jensen on the shoulder, making sure he faced the taller boy. "Catch you later, man."

"Later," Jensen bid as the Kerrigan boy walked around him to leave the school.

* * *

_Today I've wasted away, for today is on my mind._

* * *

Anna Elizabeth wasn't sure what she expected from Jensen. To be honest, she thought he was a little…weird when he spoke to her. He seemed to be a bit self-absorbed, but he was trying to relate to her at the same time.

She was a little off put by the way their conversation kept rising and falling, mainly because he kept skittering around the topics and constantly changing them, so she was utterly ecstatic when they finally get to the art studio.

"I talked to Mrs. Langdon," she announced as she carried her artwork to the back of the room. "She said I can leave my stuff here on an empty easel and I can practice whenever." Keeping her back to him, she pulled out her paintings from the cardboard roll and started to clip them one by one onto an easel. "I saw one of your sketches, and I was thinking we could draw together or something sometime."

She turned around with a shy smile. "O-only if you want to," she added nervously.

In a fluster, Jensen nodded and held his breath, hoping he said yes to something good. He gave a small, content exhale when her smile widened. "I like that one," he announced, gesturing to the painting of a beach with his eyes in the sky.

Her face alight with excitement, Anna Elizabeth turned her head to see which painting he was talking about. "I did that one last month," she gushed. "I went to the beach with my—" She stopped midsentence, thinking about how Paul had taken her to the beach on the last day of summer last year and she'd made it for him, even though he never saw it. "M-my mom," she finished quickly as she turned back to face Jensen with wide eyes.

On alert, he shot around, expecting her mother to be behind him—or worse,  _his_  mom. When he took in an empty classroom, he turned back to Anna Elizabeth with a confused expression. She eyed him skeptically, and he tried to fight off a blush as he realized that wasn't the appropriate response to whatever she said.

He looked down at his feet, wringing his hands behind his back. "Where did Rocky say she wanted you to meet her?" he asked quickly, slightly stumbling over his words as he changes the subject.

"Who?" she repeated, scrunching up her face. "I'm gonna need you to run that by me again."

Catching her final word, he looked up. He forgot that most people don't know Darla's middle name, and he didn't take into account that she wouldn't know her by the nickname, especially considering that they'd only just met. "My sister," he clarified. "Where are you meeting her?"

"The Coffee Cavern," she answered with a goofy grin and a slight bounce. "Wanna come with?"

Blatantly trying to hide his disdain, Jensen shrugged. "Could be fun."

* * *

_Today I've wasted away, for today is on my mind._

* * *

"I don't know," Anna Elizabeth breathed skeptically, clinging to a green tea Frappuccino. "This doesn't seem like a good audition place to me; there are so many people around and it's really loud."

"If you ever want to be a singer," Darla began, grabbing one of her friend's hands, "In our band or on your own, you gotta be able to sing in front of people. You need to take the spotlight wherever you can get it, even if you have steal it in a place where no one's giving you the time of day."

Anna Elizabeth crossed her legs and looked at Tyler and Connor with unease. Jordan stood at the counter buying food and Jensen sat at her side, working on a drawing as he actively ignored the water beside his sketchbook near her. At nearly full capacity, teens and middle aged adults bustling around while they try to get their overpriced drinks plagued The Coffee Cavern.

She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. "You said it could be anythin'?" she clarified.

"Just make it good and loud," Tyler instructed, taking a bite of his chocolate cheesecake.

She took in another deep breath, clenching her eyes shut. Her mother never once asked her to sing, and she never had to do it for any talent portions. Her hand slid under the table and she began to scratch her leg above her dress as she started to sing.

_"And honestly, I have been begging for answers_

_That you and only you can give to me._

_My voice crying loud,_

_I've been crying for days now._

_And as I start to run, I stop to breathe._

_And I was nearly scared to death_

_Of what you left in paragraphs._

_The words were nearly over us._

_You stop and turn and grab your bags._

_And I'll be here by the ocean_

_Just waiting for proof that there's_

_Sunsets and silhouette dreams._

_All my sand castles fall_

_Like the ashes of cigarettes,_

_And every wave drags me to sea._

_I could stand here for hours_

_Just to ask God the question:_

_'Is everyone here make-believe?'_

_With a tear in His voice_

_He said, 'Son, that's the question.'_

_Does this deafening silence mean nothing_

_To no one but me?"_

When she let out the first note, Jensen—who had been furiously shading in his sketch book—looked up in shock. Like her stature, he expected her singing voice to be small, especially since she was somewhat quiet when she spoke. But the power in her voice amazed him, and he couldn't believe how clearly he could hear her. He couldn't exactly make out every word she was singing, but he could hear her melody all the same. Her voice captivated him, as well as everyone in The Coffee Cavern as they stopped what they were doing to look her way, and he wanted her to sing forever.

As she opened her eyes once finished, her heart started fluttering nervously and she kept her eyes on her drink, afraid of what would happen next. For a moment, the entire coffee shop remained silent. Coming out of his awe and to ease her discomfort, Jensen rubbed his knee against hers, inadvertently knocking her hand away. Her head snapped to him to see him smiling at her proudly.

Then, the coffee shop erupted with applause.

Shocked, Anna Elizabeth looked around to see everyone staring and smiling at her. People set their drinks down on tables and wide chair backs to applaud her. Darla beamed brightly at her while Tyler and Connor stare on in awe. Jordan, at the register, dropped his drink to start clapping, hooting and hollering as he did so.

A wild blush raged across her face as Darla grabbed and shook her hand, rattling her Frappuccino. "We have ourselves another singer!"

* * *

_Today I've wasted away, for today is on my mind._

* * *

Anna Elizabeth sighed as she makes her way to her front door after thanking Darla for the ride. She crossed her arms, scratching one of them slightly. She didn't call her mom to tell her she'd be late coming home—as if she could since she didn't have a phone. Her mother probably waited at school for her and then came back home in a rage. If she had control of the car or her phone, this would have been a different issue.

Regardless, her mother would be livid.

Once she stepped up to the door, her mother ripped it open. At 5'5" and a heart-shaped, cherubic face, her mother didn't look like she would harm a fly. Her long, red ringlets that trail halfway down her back, her dark blue eyes, and the obvious plastic surgery on her nose and chest—and latent surgery on her lips—suggested, however, that she had a cold bone or two hidden beneath her ivory skin. The crazy stare in her gaze also sent a chill down her daughter's spine.

Her hand snapped out to Anna Elizabeth's arm, yanking her into the house as her French tips dug into the younger girl's skin. "Where the hell have you been?" she shouted in a more prominent accent than her daughter's as she slammed the door shut. She pulled Anna Elizabeth further into the living room and threw the smaller girl onto the couch. "I told you I would be there at  _exactly_ three o'clock and that you should wait out front. What part of that didn't you understand?"

She grabbed her head, her French tips like claws resting above her crimson tresses, as she clenched her eyes shut and bounced with anger. "You know you're supposed to call and ask me before you go anywhere," she reminded in a calmer voice.

"I'm sorry," Anna Elizabeth apologized meekly. "I-I would've called, but you broke my phone."

"And you know why?" her mother exploded, her eyes shooting open and her arms slamming down on her sides. "You keep running around with little stank boys! You see this house, Anna Elizabeth Nicole? I didn't get this house by messing around with boys! You are the  _only_  thing I have left in this world, and I'm not going to let you ruin your life by being a stupid little girl."

"But what about my dad?" she questioned, "Don't you have him?"

Laura sighed and crossed her arms, drumming her fingers against her lips. "I spent all day working on things," she announced. "I haven't told your daddy that we're here, but I'm gonna tell 'im soon." She balled the hand against her lips into a fist and narrowed her eyes. "We both coulda seen 'im today if you woulda kept your ass at school where it shoulda been!"

She stormed over to the couch, her heels thudding on the beige carpet, and grabbed her daughter roughly by the back of the head. Anna Elizabeth squeezed her eyes shut, trying not to make a sound. "You make me sick," she snarled through grit teeth. She pulled her daughter over to the stairwell and threw her, face first, against them. "Get your ass to your room and stay there!" she screamed. "You better hope you got somethin' to eat up there, 'cause I ain't making you dinner. I don't wanna see your ugly face until I take you to school tuh'mar'uh."

Without another word, Anna Elizabeth scampered up the stairs after pulling herself to her feet and ran to her room. When she got there, she gently closed the door because her mother hated hearing doors slam. She walked to her bed slowly and collapsed onto it, bouncing slightly before lying on her back. Her hands slid to the hem of her dress as she stared blankly at the ceiling and she pulled it up beneath her chest. She moved her hands to her stomach as she closed her eyes, feeling the small welts still present from the previous night. She traced them with her fingers as she took in a deep breath. Letting the air out slowly, she drug her nails against clean skin above her navel.

She breathed staggeringly, trying to think of anything but her mom. She hated her mom. She never thought she would hate someone, but it didn't make sense that someone could be as awful as her mother. Whoever her dad was—if they ever found him—he'd run away whenever he got the chance. How he could even stand her mother enough to get her pregnant?

What if her mom was just a one night stand?

That would explain so much, honestly. Why anyone would  _want_  to be around her Laura Jean Ragland was beyond her. She would love to have anyone else as her mother, someone who would actually act like a mother, but she can't live in her fantasy.

Maybe if she met her dad, he would whisk her away from that god awful beast that gave birth to her.

Maybe she would be happy again.


	2. Stained Glass Eyes and Colorful Tears

* * *

_"I cherish my American girl. She holds them down while I destroy the world. My desperate crimes, she don't seem to care. She bites her tong so that we can tell each other 'Baby this is paradise and it's so god damn good.'" – Pierce the Veil_

* * *

 

As soon as Anna Elizabeth woke up, her typically cheerful disposition dissipated as she stared at an unfamiliar ceiling. She had hoped this God-awful move had only been a nightmare, but there were no glow in the dark stars or the New York skyline that she'd painted at thirteen when she woke up. Her initials weren't directly above her bed in bright red. Instead, she stared up at a dingy off-white.

Groaning quietly, she rolled over onto her side and reached over to her bedside night stand to check her phone.

Then she remembered her mother broke it.

Slowly, she climbed out of bed. The dress she'd worn the previous day fell around her into its original position, reminding her that she'd forgotten to change out of it.

In a zombie-like state, she trudged to her in-room bathroom that was definitely a step up from her bathroom in the house she grew up in.

Despite growing up without a lot of money, Anna Elizabeth was fortunate enough to have her own bathroom. She and her mother lived with her grandmother because Laura had been jobless, and Etta Mae told her daughter that her grandbaby deserved her own bathroom when she hit puberty, so she forced her daughter to share her bathroom.

Even though Anna Elizabeth had her own bathroom back home, it was probably a third of the size of the one she had now. This in-room bathroom was half the size of her already large bedroom! She didn't even have a shower on her tub back home, but this one had sliding glass doors on the tub to keep the water out. Her sink even had a cabinet beneath it!

She'd instantly fallen in love with her bathroom, but now she couldn't care less for it; it only reminded her that she had it because of the bitch monster down the hall.

After turning on the water and waiting for it to heat up, she winced as the hot water hit her stomach. Stepping back in the insane amount of room in her tub, she looked down at the newly red welts above her navel. She'd fallen asleep scratching, but she must have scratched a little too much this time.

She felt like she was doing yoga as she stretched around in the shower to wash herself, but she managed to have a successful shower without irritating her scratches too much.

By the time she'd dried off and moved back into her bedroom to pick out an outfit for the day, her mother knocked on the door.

She had half a mind to scream 'Go to Hell,' but she wouldn't live to see the school day afterward.

Mentally regretting it, she moved to the door and opened it to find her mother wearing an apologetic look as she wrung her hands behind her back. "Can I come in, baby girl?" she asked sheepishly.

Wordlessly, Anna Elizabeth nodded and moved out of the way to let her mother in, clinging to her towel so it wouldn't fall. "I was about to get ready," she announced.

"I changed your diapers until you were three and bathed you until you were six," Laura reminded her daughter as she sat on the bed. "Ain't nothin' I ain't seen before." As her daughter moved to her dresser to pick out undergarments, she cleared her throat. "I'm sorry about how I acted last night, baby girl. You just know you shouldn't do things that make Mama angry."

"You get angry so easy, though," Anna Elizabeth pointed out as she pulled on her underwear. "Maybe it's time you go see a doctor so they can give you somethin'."

Laura scowled. "Your grandmamma raised me to deal with whatever I got by myself and with the help of the Lord," she spat. "Can't no doctor do what God does."

"Then why does God let you get so angry?" the younger girl questioned with a pained gaze after clasping her bra.

"He's testing us," her mother answered flatly. "He's testing to see how much we love Him. Have you been praying like I told you to?"

Anna Elizabeth nodded. But the only thing she'd been praying for—aside from a different mother—was to be with Paul and her old friends again. "Yes, Mama."

Laura's face softened and she smiled. "That's my girl," she breathed proudly. She stood as her daughter wiggled into a pair of skinny jeans and held out a new cell phone. Her daughter gasped and scurried over. "I was gonna give it to ya yesterday to make up for the one I broke," she announced.

"Thank you, Mama," she thanked as she took the phone gingerly.

"I don't think I have to tell you why I deleted that boy's number," Laura stated authoritatively. "I don't want you talking to him or any other boy. Your daddy ain't gone want nothin' to do with either of us if you get pregnant."

"So why can't I get birth control?" her daughter asked without thinking.

Without hesitation, Laura slapped her across the face the second she uttered the last word. "So you can be a whore?" she screamed. "You want to sleep around, is that it?"

"N-no, Mama," Anna Elizabeth stammered quietly as she held her cheek with her free hand. "I'm sorry I said anything."

"You better be," her mother spat. "Hurry up and finish getting dressed. I'm leaving in ten minutes and you better be in that car before then."

"Yes, Mama," she agreed sheepishly as she turned back to her closet.

* * *

_Someday we'll tell ourselves "Oh my God, this is paradise."_

* * *

_10:58 PM, From: Potential Boyfriend_

_Let's do something tomorrow._

**11:00 PM, To: Potential Boyfriend**

**Like what? I have school tomorrow, remember?**

_11:00 PM, From: Potential Boyfriend_

_Let's go to the beach._

**11:01 PM, To Potential Boyfriend**

**Lol really? I still have school.**

_11:01PM, From: Potential Boyfriend_

_Skip it. Everyone needs a break._

**11:01 PM, To: Potential Boyfriend**

**Idk… What if my mom finds out? She'll kill me!**

**And it's only the second week of school!**

**Plus, I've already missed so much stuff…**

_11:02 PM, From: Potential Boyfriend_

_Even more reason for a break. You'll be fine. Cmon let's go!_

_Don't you want to be with me?_

**11:02 PM, To: Potential Boyfriend**

**Ofc I do… Fine! Pick me up at school. 7:50!**

_11:02 PM, From: Potential Boyfriend_

_I'll be there. Can't wait to see those pretty eyes again…_

* * *

_Someday we'll tell ourselves "Oh my God, this is paradise."_

* * *

Having a college boy infatuated with her filled Darla with a sense of pride that she'd never felt before. It was strange having a boy's attention, but she loved it. In the two weeks that they'd been seeing each other, she realized she really liked him.

That wasn't to say, however, that she hoped the relationship would end in marriage.

She wasn't naïve; she knew that most people didn't marry their first boyfriend or girlfriend. While her father had been her mother's first boyfriend, she had been his third girlfriend…which concerned her since her parents were thirteen when they started dating…

And honestly, she wasn't sure she wanted to get married.

She had two wonderful models of a good marriage, but the commitment of it scared her. And growing up in the limelight, she knew that not everyone had successful relationships. Every other day, she had paparazzi following her, trying to get a money shot from the seed of the infamous Jade West-Oliver. If she were to get married, the paparazzi influx would only continue. Rumors would spread. They would say she was having an affair, that her husband had another family. If she got pregnant, the baby wouldn't be his.

Last year, the tabloids started the vicious rumor that she was going to follow in her mother's footsteps and be a teen mother just because she decided to wear a loose shirt and baggy sweatpants when she went to take out the garbage.

So she definitely wasn't sure if she ever wanted to marry, and she knew that Mason was not the marriage type.

He walked with an air of power for someone who was only five years her senior. He was the type of guy who could charm a fish out of water. He was smooth talking and persuasive, and he looked like he didn't know how to take no for an answer. When he was sixteen, he and his friends got pulled in a van carrying ten pounds of weed to Long Beach. The year before, he'd been caught with a case of Heineken behind his high school. But he walked away from both with just a slap on the wrist.

He was used to getting what he wanted and he was very well off, and she could just  _smell_ how spoiled he was. But he seemed fun, and she wasn't about to pass up the thrill of dating a fast paced twenty-two year old.

There were drawbacks to being with him, though.

Since they met, she'd been texting him nearly nonstop, skipping out on meeting her friends before school so she could have just a few more minutes with him before they had to part ways. They would spend hours on end texting, and she started letting Jensen drive—despite their mother's position on the matter—just so she wouldn't have to stop talking to him.

And when she wasn't texting him, she was sneaking off to go meet him.

She'd skipped seven classes in ten days. It was a wonder she hadn't been found out yet. It started with just lunch, but then she would skip first period. Then she skipped fourth period, fifth period on another day, third period the next, and even took it upon herself to skip the latter portion of school one day.

She didn't like saying no to his whimsical fun, and now he wanted her to skip the entire school day.

She didn't want to say no to him; if she did, he'd see her for the little high school baby that she was and wouldn't like her anymore. She wanted to keep the fun going as long as possible, and she wanted to be the one to break up with him should it ever come to it. If he were to lose interest in her, she'd be a failure.

She wanted to be like her mother in the boy department.

The notorious Jade West—hot-tempered, ill-mannered, brooding, terrifying—met her husband in middle school! Whatever life threw at her, she was able to overcome it and keep Beck in her life. She was the type of woman to take charge of any situation so she could come out on top. Darla had no doubt that her mother had been a handful growing up, but obviously her father never lost interest. If her mother wanted a guy like Mason, there was no doubt she'd be able to keep him on a leash without even batting an eyelash.

"Whatcha thinkin' bout?" Anna Elizabeth questioned as she bounced up to Darla and her skateboard-logo-covered locker, twirling a lock of her curly black hair that hung through her long ponytail.

Her eyes focused—in her Mason induced daze—on the stairwell as a dance group practiced a routine, Darla blinked and lowered her eyes to the tiny girl before her. Something about the scene seemed vaguely familiar, but she couldn't put her finger on it. "Just how much I really wanna go to the beach," she lied flawlessly with a charming smile.

Anna Elizabeth's eyes widened and her lips spread from ear to ear in an excited grin. "We should do that this weekend!" she exclaimed in her thick Southern accent. "I've always wanted to go to a California beach!"

Darla's smile fell. "I can't," she sighed. "My parents are having this party and they want me and Jen to be there. I'd invite you, but it's kind of an annual reunion for my parents and their friends from high school."

Anna Elizabeth sighed, her face falling along with her eyes. "S'alright I guess," she breathed. "Mama says we gotta do stuff anyway." She held her arms and looks up to Darla with a weak smile and a dismayed stare. "I was hopin' I could find a way to get out of it."

Pouting, Darla outstretched her arms to her friend. "Give us a squeeze," she offered, flexing her fingers at the tiny girl. Anna Elizabeth giggled and stepped closer, leaning her head on Darla's shoulders and pressing her arms against Darla's chest as the West-Oliver girl encompasses her. "You can text me any time this weekend if you need to."

"Thanks," Anna Elizabeth breathes into her friends shoulder.

"Please, ladies!" Hector cried, holding up pants two sizes too big as he ran up to them. The girls broke and looked to him in shock, then tried to keep from laughing. "At least let me get my camera."

From across the hall, his cousin Erica groaned and stomped over to him dramatically, channeling her inner Trina with every click of her obnoxiously high stilettos. She grabbed him roughly by the ear with an annoyed glare and a neatly French-tipped manicured grip. "I told you to leave her alone," she hissed lowly while he cried out in pain. She turned to Anna Elizabeth and Darla with an apologetic smile. "I don't know what to do with him sometimes."

"It's okay," Darla announced, moving around Anna Elizabeth and wrapping her arm around Hector's shoulders. As she pressed her knuckles to his head, Erica let go of his ear and stepped back, covering her mouth to suppress any giggles as she watched the older girl give her cousin a noogie. "He's lucky his brother isn't here."

"Man, Tony can't do nothin'," Hector exclaimed, trying to break free of Darla's grasp. "Why are you so strong?!"

"Drummers have muscle!" the tall girl laughed, wrestling with him slightly. Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she gasped, releasing Hector. She whipped it out as he fell to the ground with a loud thud. "I gotta go." Keeping her eyes on her phone as she spoke, she practically tripped over Hector—accidentally kicking him in the stomach—as she made her way to the Asphalt Café.

"Well that wasn't odd," Erica quipped, looking after the junior.

Hector groaned loudly. "Wanna help me up here?" he called, reaching his hand up to her.

She started to reach over to help him when her striking green eyes caught sight of a boy two lockers down. At a ravishing five-foot-ten, he stood as tall as her with her heels on. His hair hung in a slicked, black ponytail at the nape of his neck. She couldn't see his eyes, but she assumed they're just as sexy as the leather jacket he sported.

She snatched her hand back from Hector and twirled a lock of her strawberry blonde hair, eyeing the boy seductively. "I think I just found our Oleander," she breathed. She looked back to Anna Elizabeth. "You should really consider being in our movie." With a playful smirk and a quick lick of her cherry lipgloss-coated lips, she gestures to the boy across the hall with her eyes. "He can be one of your leading men."

"I don't know," Anna Elizabeth responded uneasily, fiddling with the hem of her white blouse. "I'm not really an actress."

"What if we got Jensen to play the other lead?" Hector offered as straightened out his clothes and stood upright.

Erica gasped when the tiny girl blushed. "Someone's got a crush!" she exclaimed in an excited whisper. "And it couldn't've been on a hotter guy!"

"I do not!" Anna Elizabeth denied, narrowing her eyes at the sophomore. "He's not even interested anyway."

"Then we'll make him interested!" Erica promised with a coy smirk, grabbing Anna Elizabeth by the arms. "And to do that, you have to meet your other leading man."

* * *

_Someday we'll tell ourselves "Oh my God, this is paradise."_

* * *

"Can we stop by the store first?" Darla asked as she climbed into Mason's Sedan, nervously scanning her surroundings for any narcs.

With a small smile, he leaned in to kiss her on the cheek. "Good morning to you, too," he greeted. He took his hand off the wheel to caress her cheek as he kissed her earlobe. "I missed you."

She gasped and closed her eyes, trying to keep her breathing steady as she felt a sensation stirring between her legs. She may not have thought he was marriage material, but he was definitely suitable for other things.

"I m-missed you too," she stammered out, still flustered by his incredible appeal. She felt a blush coming on, and she wondered if he could feel it too with his head so close to hers. She took in a deep breath to steady herself. "I need a new swimsuit."

He flicked his tongue against her earlobe before kissing her cheek again, trailing his thick lips down her jaw. The sensation between her legs intensified, and she pressed her knees tightly together. She pressed her eyes shut, halfway hoping he would keep up this risqué behavior. The other half—the more rational half she inherited from her father—kept screaming 'We're in front of the school! You're gonna get in trouble!'

He ran his fingertips down her arm, then gently across her stomach, and further down her leg.

Damn, he was good.

"Anything you want," he breathed against her jawline once his hand stopped at her knee. He straightened up and put the car in drive with a smug smirk on his face while she shrank in her seat with a quiet exhale, watching the school pass her by.

* * *

_Someday we'll tell ourselves "Oh my God, this is paradise."_

* * *

"Other w-what?" Anna Elizabeth stammers as the Michaels girl drags her down the hall.

Not answering, Erica smiled as they came to a stop by the dark-haired boy. "Hi, Barrett," she greeted flirtatiously.

The boy—Barrett Davison—turned to the two girls with a raised brow, giving Erica a delightful glimpse at his bright, hazel eyes. "Hi," he returned in confusion. "Can I help you two with something?"

"We're making a movie," Erica announced, cutting to the chase and making sure to lay her accent on thick and bat her eyes seductively. "I know you aren't much into acting, but you're perfect for the part."

"What's going on with your eyes?" he asked, looking at her skeptically.

She gaped at him for a minute and stopped batting her eyelashes in defeat. She grimaced and crossed her arms. She tilted her head to the girl beside her. "This is Anna Elizabeth Ragland," she spat. "She'll be your leading lady. There are two leading men and we're trying to make Jensen West-Oliver the other one."

"Why are there two leading men?" Barrett scrutinized, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. "Is this some kind of chick flick?"

"Kind of," she answered, her face falling from his apparent hostility. "But there are a lot of guys in it! It's set in the Middle Ages, so there are kings and knights and everything. The whole shebang! Tony Kerrigan's going to be in it, and so are Darla's skateboarding friends. I know you know them! You're perfect to play the part of Oleander and the sooner we can start filming, the sooner you can go back to doing whatever it is you do."

"They're making me play the lead," Anna Elizabeth announced sheepishly, looking at her feet. She looked up at him through her lashes. "It probably won't be so bad; everyone's real nice."

Barrett sighed, weighing his options. He was more of a musician than anything, so he could help with the scoring—if he wanted to. It didn't seem too bad of an idea, but he still wasn't much of an actor. Also, he'd seen Erica around before, and she looked like the kind of girl that needed to be told 'no' every now and then.

But Anna Elizabeth's pretty much the talk of the school.

While she certainly was not his type, he couldn't deny that she was pretty in what he concluded to be a charade of innocence; no wonder he heard from the grapevine that Jensen was pretty much smitten with her. Unlike most girls, she wore more modest clothes. Though this was the first time he'd ever seen her, he assumed she was the type of girl who liked always dressing in peasant tops and skinny jeans—because, hey, he could read people like that. His mother was a stylist, and she always told him how women would come in with their hair snatched up in ponytails when they were having bad days. But this girl? He could tell just by her ponytail that she was having a bad month.

It would be wrong to say no to her.

"Well," he started slowly, "I guess I could…when you put it that way."

Erica's face alighted with joy and she squealed slightly, grabbing her new friend's hand in celebration.

* * *

_Someday we'll tell ourselves "Oh my God, this is paradise."_

* * *

"What about this one?" she pondered as she held up a strapless black swimsuit with a 3-inch thick white trim and a ruffled black skirt that would fall just below her bottom once she put it on.

Mason shook his head, crossing his legs and resting his ankle on the opposite knee. "Too modest for the beach," he told her in all honesty. He gave a dazzling smile. "My girl needs to like showing some skin every now and then."

"I-it's topless," she offered sheepishly, wide-eyed. "Did you just say I was your girl?"

"I did." He smiled and stood, gently grabbing her face and kissing her. She dropped the swimsuit in the kiss and wrapped her arms around his neck, enjoying the feeling. She loved kissing him, because every kiss felt as good as the first one they shared on their second date.

She bit her lip when he pulled from the kiss, savoring the feeling of what she just experienced and watching him as he turned his head toward a rack. He reached out and grabbed the first thing his fingers touched: a pink bikini with barely any fabric on the drawstrings. He turned back to her with a devilish smile. " _This_  is something my girl would wear."

She eyed it uneasily and shook her head. " _I_  wouldn't wear it, though," she told him with the firmest voice she's had since she met him. If her mother were there, she would have been proud.

Darla wasn't one for bearing too much skin and, quite frankly, it made her nervous. And though her family has a pool, she had never been much for swimming—mainly because she was too afraid to learn how.

Her last encounter with any body of water happened at Long Beach when she was ten. She didn't have much fun and avidly made it her mission not to go back ever since; her mom spent the entire day as far away from the water as possible while still being on the sand, muttering about her strong dislike of dolphins. It didn't help that the paparazzi were there to further spoil the outing.

Suffice to say, she wasn't really looking forward to this beach trip, but she decided to deal with it since it was something he wanted.

She turned to the rack of swimsuits and sifts through them, making loud noises as the metal hangers creaked against the metal railing. She spotted a grey one-piece and pulled it out for further examination. The fabric had been cut to an hourglass figure that showed off parts of the wearer's sides. The bust was a little more exposed that she'd have liked and the gold ring holding the top and bottom of the fabric together seemed a little trashy by her standards, but it looked like something Mason would like. She looked up at him with curious eyes, awaiting his approval.

"How about a compromise?" she suggested. "I can live with this."

She could have sworn she saw him scowl as he turned away, but she tried to pass it off as her eyes playing tricks on her. She needed to switch to a new pair of contacts, but she'd been too preoccupied with texting him earlier that morning to open a new pack. So in her rush to get to school, she'd put on the old pair that she'd left in the lens case.

"Fine," he spat, making his way to the register.

* * *

_Someday we'll tell ourselves "Oh my God, this is paradise."_

* * *

Mason told her he'd pay for the suit, so Darla busied herself with looking at other things in the store. She had her eye on a really nice leather jacket, but her mom always wanted to be consulted before any non-emergency purchases were made.

As she continued to survey the jacket, she jumped in shock when he wrapped his arms around her waist from behind, the bag rustling loudly. "Ready?"

"Yeah," she smiled, placing her hands on top of his, taking in his warmth. He kept his arms around her waist, and the couple made their way out of the store.

* * *

_Someday we'll tell ourselves "Oh my God, this is paradise."_

* * *

"Have you seen Darla?" Anna Elizabeth questioned as she walked up to Jordan and Tyler after second period. She held her books tightly against her chest, slightly wrinkling her blouse. While everyone else had left for lunch, there were still a few students in the hallway. Jordan and Tyler had been joking around outside the Social Studies room waiting for Connor to finish a 'meeting' with his teacher while she watched them for a good two minutes, trying to work up the nerve to talk to them. She still hadn't found her place in this school, even after being around for two weeks, and she wasn't sure when that was going to change.

Jordan's face fell and Tyler looked away awkwardly. "Nope," he answered flatly as he crossed his arms. "She didn't come to school today."

She cocked her head to the side, staring at him in confusion. "Yes she did," she challenged meekly. "She was here before the first bell."

"She probably skipped again," Tyler guessed in his abnormally deep voice as he ran a hand through his shaggy brown hair and continued to look away. He seemed like he didn't want to be having this conversation.

Jordan rolled his eyes, his mouth falling into a tight grimace. "She's been skipping a lot lately," he announced, unimpressed. "She was bound to skip an entire day sooner or later."

This time, Tyler rolled his eyes. "Don't mind him," he advised, dropping his hand from his hair and meeting her eyes. "He's just jealous because she's skipping with her boyfriend."

"O-oh," she mumbled awkwardly. Slowly, she stepped backward and gave a quiet, "Uh…Thanks, I guess" before turning and heading off to the Asphalt Café.

Maybe she and Darla weren't as close as she thought…

* * *

_Someday we'll tell ourselves "Oh my God, this is paradise."_

* * *

"Okay, where's Darla?" Hector asked impatiently as he took his seat at lunch.

"With her stupid boyfriend," Jordan spat, stabbing his chicken with his fork forcefully.

"Do we really need her for the movie?" Erica inquired, looking to her cousin. Behind his head, she spotted Barrett, food tray in hand. Her arm shot up and she smiled broadly, flashing perfectly white teeth. "Barrett! Over here!"

The intensity of her voice—which she attributed from her never-quiet mother—shocked him, as well as several people in the Asphalt Café. He nodded at her skeptically and slowly made his way over. "So about this movie," he sighed as he took the free seat by Anna Elizabeth. He looked around the table to take in his surroundings.

The Boarders—Jordan, Connor, and Tyler—all sat side by side, focusing on their food or on their phones. Erica had her eyes locked onto him, desperately trying to flirt. Little did she know, she was barking up the wrong tree. Tony and Jensen sat across the table waiting for someone else to speak, Jensen directly in front of Anna Elizabeth while she picked at her salad. Hector grimaced by his cousin.

"We were  _going_  to start rehearsal today at lunch," the younger Kerrigan boy announced ruefully, "But Darla isn't here. She already said she'd be Oleander's mom."

"Do you think she'll be back after school?" Barrett asked, trying to ease Hector's bad mood. "We'd probably be the only ones in the auditorium."

"If she isn't," Anna Elizabeth piped up, lifting her head and meeting Hector's eyes. "It wouldn't hurt to start without her. It's not like we're filming just yet."

"I want to start filming as soon as possible!" Hector whined slightly before slamming his elbows on the metal table and holding his head in his hands with a loud groan.

Erica awkwardly rubbed his back to soothe him. "We can replace her if we have to," she offered lowly.

Hector just groaned again.

"At least we got Jensen," she added, trying a different approach.

At the time being, that was a lie.

He didn't want to be in the movie. And if he didn't want to be in it, then Barrett wouldn't be in it. Hector thought he could be persuaded into joining the cast, but it was Erica who suggested that Anna Elizabeth be the one to ask him. The half-Australian princess pulled her aside and said it was part of her plan to get Jensen to ask her out. She said 'if he likes you, he'll be in the movie because he doesn't want to make you sad.' And before Anna Elizabeth could protest, she added: 'And if he still says no, tell him Barrett Davison's playing the other lead. That'll really hit him hard!'

But talking to Jensen was easier said than done.

She was hoping she would find Darla and get her to convince her brother to be in the movie so she wouldn't let Erica and Hector down, but she had no such luck.

She was running out of options.

* * *

_Someday we'll tell ourselves "Oh my God, this is paradise."_

* * *

When they got to the beach, she snatched the bag out of the backseat of her boyfriend's car and ran off to the changing station at the edge of the beach. Though she wasn't too thrilled about swimming, she was ecstatic to show off her new suit to her new beau.

However, her face fell when she opened the bag and peered in.

Instead of the grey suit she'd chosen and he'd compromised on, she stared down at the God-awful, pink monstrosity he'd first chosen.

"Just put it on," he urged from behind, startling her.

She jumped at the initial sound of his voice and turned around, clutching the bag tightly in her fingers. "What the hell?" she shot back. "Where's the one we agreed on?"

"You'll look so much better in this one," he assured her, avoiding the question. "Put it on and let's get in the water."

She crossed her arms. "I don't feel comfortable wearing this one," she stated adamantly, narrowing her eyes.

His hand snapped out to hers and he forced her arms uncrossed, pressings his fingers into her wrist. She let out a small noise of pain which he readily ignored. "If I say you'll look better in it," he began through grit teeth and dark eyes, "Then you put the damn thing on. I bought it for you to wear."

"I didn't ask you to buy it," she spat, snatching her arm back.

Before she could react, he slapped her hard across the face and she cried out. "Stop being an ungrateful child and put the damn thing on!" he shouted.

She held her face, keeping her eyes on the ground. She should have just screamed for help and have someone take him away. She'd learned from some of the movies her dad had been in that that wasn't how boys treated their girlfriends.

But maybe he was right.

Maybe she was just being ungrateful. After all, she probably wouldn't even have a suit if he hadn't bought it for her. Other girls wouldn't have put up such a fuss about it and just put it on without another word. She was being childish by trying to have things her way when he'd gone out of his to make sure she'd have a good time.

"I'm sorry," Mason grunted, shoving his hands into the pockets of his khaki shorts. "I shouldn't have done that; it won't happen again."

"No," Darla breathed monotonously, "It was my fault. I  _was_  being ungrateful."

"Are you going to change?" he asked quietly, looking down at the bag.

Slowly, her eyes fell to it and she nodded. "I'll be out in a minute," she announced.

* * *

_Someday we'll tell ourselves "Oh my God, this is paradise."_

* * *

At first, Darla wouldn't get in above her knees. The water was cold, even though it felt good in the scorching LA heat, and it didn't make her want to risk it any further. If she weren't slightly worried about Mason getting angry with her again, she wouldn't have even gone in that far. She spent most of her time trying to cover herself in the tiny swimsuit, feeling far too exposed and nervous.

But then he kept playing around.

After about ten minutes of him chasing her along the coast of the beach—or attempting to since they could only move but so fast in knee-deep water—he finally caught up to her and wrapped his arms around her waist, picking her up and eliciting a high pitched, presumably playful scream.

"Let's go out further!" he jested over her scream.

Before she could protest, he spun around in the water to gain momentum and threw her further out to sea. She screamed as she soared through the air, clinging to her chest tightly so it wouldn't spell out of the skimpy bikini top, and hit the water with a loud splash.

As her head submerged, she started to panic. What if she never came back up? What if the tide took her further out and she couldn't get back? The water filling her lungs suggested that she wouldn't even resurface. She thrashed beneath the foamy waves in her panicked state and refused to stop, even as her arms collided with his chest.

Heroically, he hooked his hands her beneath her arms and hoisted her up to a standing position…where she only stood waist deep…

"Are you okay?" he laughed as she pulled away in a fluster.

"Yeah," she lied quietly, running her hand through her wet hair to slick it back out of her face.

"What's wrong?" he asked, reaching out to touch one of her arms as she crossed them. "Are you still mad at me?"

"Can we just go?" she snapped, averting her eyes to sand too far away for comfort.

"Relax, Babe," he advised, moving through the water to encompass her in his arms. To her dismay, he spun her slightly so that she faced the open ocean and he stood behind her. He rested his chin on her shoulder, gently breathing into her ear. "I know something that'll relax you," he whispered seductively.

Then, one of his hands slid into the water and beneath the crotch of her bottoms and she gasped loudly, but the roaring waves around them muffled her sound.

His hand shot up to her mouth to silence her as he flicked his fingers against her clit beneath the water. "Shh," he hushed. "Don't make a sound. Just relax." She took in a deep breath and focused on the water, trying not to cry out beneath his hand. And when she remained silent, he took his hand from her mouth and pressed it against the bare skin of her side. His fingers inched under the drenched, skin-tight fabric covering her breast to flick her nipple teasingly. She let out small noises of pleasure and he chuckled to himself in pride.

"You like that?" he breathed enticingly.

She leaned her head back against his chest with her eyes closed as he rubbed her clit faster. She started to lose herself in his touch, and she felt like she was close to climax. She had touched herself before, so the touch wasn't new, but somehow having his hand in the place of hers nearly sent her body spiraling into carnal pleasure.

"Stop," she whimpered quietly, her voice barely audible above the waves. He started to gently pinch her nipple, shooting pleasure up and down her body, and she began to grind against his finger as he continued to play with her.

Then she remembered where they were.

"Stop," she demanded louder, slight fear apparent in her voice as she put her hands on his arms to push them away.

"C'mon," he urged as he continued to play with her. "No one's watching."

"I don't care!" she shouted as she started to struggle beneath him. She ripped his hands away from her body and moved forward into the deeper water. She turned around and splashed him roughly. "I don't do that and I never will."

His hand roughly seized her arm, popping a bone. "We're just playing around," he reminded her sternly, darkness clouding his eyes. "Live a little!"

"I said no," she snarled as she yanked her arm from him, splashing water around. "Take me back to school!"

* * *

_Someday we'll tell ourselves "Oh my God, this is paradise."_

* * *

"Where've you been?!" Anna Elizabeth exclaimed as Darla begrudgingly took her seat in her last period of the day. Her wide hazel eyes rolled up to the West-Oliver girl's hair. The usually straight, chin-skimming bob had been pulled up as much as possible into a tiny, messy ponytail in attempt to mask its unexpected waviness. "What happened to your hair?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Darla spat, keeping her eyes forward. Right now, she actually felt like her mother's daughter; everything in the world pissed her off to the point where she felt like resorting to murder just to get people to leave her alone. She didn't want to snap at Anna Elizabeth, but her high pitched Southern twang really started to grind her gears.

"Well…I decided I'm gonna be in Hector's little film," the shorter girl announced slowly, nervously twirling her hair. "He wanted me to ask your brother if he'd be in it too, but I'm just too shy to talk to him about stuff like that. I was hoping you could do it."

"Whatever," the West-Oliver girl snarled as the teacher entered the room. "Class is about to start."

With a small sigh, Anna Elizabeth sat back in her seat, resting her hand on her knee, scratching it lightly.

* * *

_Someday we'll tell ourselves "Oh my God, this is paradise."_

* * *

Luckily, managed to catch up to Jensen after the last bell rang and worked up the courage to ask him if he'd be in the movie—and it really helped her that at least Erica was there for support. Though he was still hesitant, he eventually agreed.

If only she could have worked up the nerve  _before_  tearing the left knee of her jeans.

Her mother was gonna kill her when she saw the hole.

But aside from that, Erica and Hector stood center stage stage in the Black Box Theater while Tony, Tyler, Jordan, Jensen, Connor, and Anna Elizabeth sat in the front row of the audience. Erica managed to flag Darla down beforehand, but she was currently at her locker getting some stuff.

"Alright, everybody," Hector announced, projecting his voice far enough to reach the middle of the auditorium. "Erica's going to give you the scripts and your characters are written on the front. Even if you think you aren't good enough, we'll make it work. We'll do the script reading today and more rehearsal on Sunday. I got Sikowitz to let us use the Black Box at 3, so don't make any other plans."

Erica exited stage left to walk out to the audience and handed out all of the scripts, leafing through each one to make sure she handed them to the appropriate people. Before the last script was handed out, Darla ran into the theater muttering apologies, but Erica disregarded them with a displeased frown and handed her the script with  _Duchess Maria d'Adreci_ written on the title page in Hector's sloppy handwriting.

She saved the last script for Jensen and smiled at him. "I think you and AE should talk to share numbers so you can make the chemistry between Giselle and Adam believable," she whispered, leaning close to him. She plopped the script down in his lap before snapping up and spinning around to head back for the stage.

Consisting of nine characters, the film would only be thirty minutes long at most. It centered on Giselle Broussard, heir to the throne in an unnamed kingdom. As her eighteenth birthday draws closer, her parents, King Henry and Queen Katherine, tell her she must marry to take her place.

Among many suitors, Oleander d'Adreci—the Dauphin of a neighboring French quarter and firstborn son of the great Duke Alphonse d'Adreci—falls madly in love with her astounding beauty. Of her suitors, Giselle finds him to be the most tolerable, especially for his equally good looks. But on the eve of their meeting, she sneaks out into her kingdom (dressed in tattered rags) as she normally would when the mundane rituals of palace life bored her. Wanting to get away from people in general, she retires to a farm where a peasant boy finds her. He tells her that she shouldn't be out late at night and offers to take her back to her home, which she declines, telling him that she can fend for herself if need be.

After her encounter with the peasant boy, Adam, she takes more and more trips into the kingdom to see him. She falls in love with his kindness to a total stranger and decides that she wants to marry him.

But unbeknownst to Giselle, Oleander had made several trips to her kingdom to try and court her, often catching her sneaking out instead. When he hears her telling her Lady in Waiting that she wishes to marry Adam, he becomes outraged and threatens her, informing her that he overheard their parents discussing how she was taken from her home as a baby and comes from peasant blood. He tells her that if her kingdom were to find out, they would never accept her as queen and the kingdom would fall into anarchy. He does, however, give her an ultimatum: he won't tell anyone about her bloodline if she takes his hand in marriage and vows to never see Adam again.

Without hesitation, Giselle declines his offer and tells him that he'll never be king of anything. In a moment of blind rage, he attacks him and knocks him out.

She begs her Lady in Waiting—a witch named Cree—to help her find a way to find her real parents. After a voodoo spell, the witch reveals that Adam's father and late mother are her parents as well, leaving Giselle heartbroken. The witch promises she won't tell anyone, but the princess is conflicted.

After three days of solitude, she promises once more to marry Oleander. And much to her own dismay, she finds Adam and tells him that she can't marry him because they are siblings. Through heavy tears, she also tells him that she can no longer speak to him and he can never mention the time they spent together.

Finally, on her wedding night, she poisons Oleander's drink, vowing to rule the kingdom on her own.

"Why do I have to be the Lady in Waiting?" Connor whined when they finished reading through the script.

"Because we didn't have time to look for any other girls," Hector answered impatiently, drumming his fingers on the wood of the stage. He and Erica took the liberty to sit on it while they did the read through.

"Shoulda made Jordan do it," he joked, punching his friend in the arm. "He looks more like a girl than I do."

"Shut up!" the ginger defended, punching his friend back playfully.

"Okay!" Hector shouted above the fighting boys, hopping down from the stage. "Practice at home and we'll do two rehearsals on Sunday. Hopefully we can film it then. If not, we'll try for Monday at lunch." Considering he'd only drafted and printed copies of the script the night before, he took a seat at the end of the front row to reread the script for any errors.

Erica hopped down from the stage as well, a very small distance considering her obnoxious heels, and swayed over to Tyler. "Can I talk to you for a moment?" she asked, flashing a dazzling smile.

"Uh…sure," he answered skeptically. He shot Jordan a pleading look when she snatched his hand and led him to the other end of the theater. His friend simply shrugged and went back to looking at his script.

Before Anna Elizabeth could follow Erica's lead and ask Jensen to another part of the theater—or attempt to, anyway—Darla nudged him and told/signed to him that she was leaving he'd better hurry up and come with her if he wanted a ride home. She'd picked up a small bit of sign language, learning it mostly so she'd be able to fit in better with some of her new friends, but found it weird that Darla really only signed around Tony and Jensen…

With a sigh, she slumped back into her seat as Barrett turned to ask Tony if they could talk at the very back of the Black Box and the twins got up to leave.

"So maybe we should hang out," he suggested once they were out of earshot of everyone else. "Y'know…since you're playing my dad and stuff."

Tony shrugged. "I mean we can," he played off nonchalantly. "We don't even have a scene where we speak to each other, though."

"Well you could help me rehearse then," Barrett threw out, trying to hide his bubbling insecurity. "I didn't really want to be in this movie and I'll probably drop out if I have to practice a part for a chick flick by myself."

"I guess," Tony nodded off.

"Let me get your number," the other boy requested, turning up his head and eyeing Tony's pocket. "I can text you my address and we can do it at my house."

Something didn't right.

Tony narrowed his eyes at the boy before him. "You're getting a little pushy," he pointed out.

Barrett just shrugged, his leather jacket rustling slightly. "We could find other stuff to talk about," he announced. "I'm just trying to be friendly."

"Too friendly," Tony added flatly as he crossed his arms. "You think I'm gay or something?" He kept his voice low in case anyone might hear him. "You trying to call me a faggot?"

"Chill out, man," Barrett advised, holding his hands and rolled up script up in surrender. "I'm not saying anything. I just see…signs. I'm starting this whole coming out process…and I was thinking that we could…you know, come out together."

His eye twitching, the Kerrigan boy shoved this…stranger. "I'm not gay," he growled lowly. "And if you say anything to anyone, I'll give you a set of matching black eyes. Don't even talk to me outside of this stupid movie, and don't talk to me unless it's  _about_  the movie. Got it?"

Barrett sighed and ran a hand through his hair, pulling strands loose from his ponytail. "Whatever," he spat, walking around Tony and exiting the theater.

Watching the whole scene, Anna Elizabeth scurried up to the disgruntled teen. "You di'nt hafta been so mean to 'im," she stated, mustering as much confidence in her voice as she could.

Tony's head snapped to her, his eyes filled with rage. "And what the hell do you know?" he snarled. "The mousy new girl thinks she knows everything now? Please. I saw you hanging out with Erica. Maybe you're a dyke trying to be straight by  _obviously_  crushing on someone who's  _never_  gonna be interested in you."

He stormed off as her eyes begin to water.

Erica noticed it…and now Tony had. There was no telling who else knew about her silly little crush. But…how could he be so mean like that, calling her that nasty word? Was it because of the way she dressed? Did she have to wear big shoes and tiny clothes just to prove she was straight? Yeah, she kissed a girl at a party once, but that was just in a game of spin the bottle after one too many drinks. But what if Tony was right and everyone else thought what he did?

That would somewhat explain Jensen's weird behavior…

Ducking her head so no one would see her crying, Anna Elizabeth crossed her arms and rapidly scraped her nails against the exposed skin of her elbows. She took shallow breaths, trying not to cry as she left the theater to go meet her mom.

She almost made it out of the door when she bumped into someone and nearly toppled backward. Had it not been for a paper-white hand grabbing her wrist, she would have fallen into a stack of chairs.

"Are you okay?" Jensen asked as he helped her stand up straight.

She nodded as she whipped her eyes. "Sorry about bumping into you," she apologized, clenching her eyes shut to force the tears to stop. Of course it had to be him.

"It's okay," he assured her. "But why were you crying?"

She shook her head. "Don't worry about it," she breathed shakily.

"O…kay. Well can I get your phone number? We should…rehearse since we-we'll have a lot of lines together."

Her eyes snapped open in confusion. He was asking for her number? And…he was _stuttering_? Was this a good sign?

"S-sure," she stammered back. "Do you have a pen?"

He nodded toward the stage. "Let me get my phone first," he told her, sounding as if she hadn't even spoken. "I forgot it." Maybe this wasn't a sign at all…

As they make their way to the front of the theater, she crossed her arms again and continued grating her elbows with her fingernails. She watched him as he returned to his seat and bent down to pick up his phone that had fallen to the floor. It was really big and a little fancy; she'd never seen anything like it before, not even at her old school. She just has the dinky little PearPhone GXT, a  _severely_  outdated model that her mom had given her earlier that morning; she didn't think they made those anymore.

He swiped his thumb along the screen and handed it to her. Wordlessly, she entered her number in and handed it back to him. He opened his mouth to say something, but she didn't want to take the chance of getting any more mixed signals. "I gotta go. My mama's waitin' outside."

She quickly turned on the heels of her sandals and dashed out of the Black Box, leaving Jensen to stare after her in wonder.

* * *

_Someday we'll tell ourselves "Oh my God, this is paradise."_

* * *

By the time Anna Elizabeth got to the front doors, she saw her mom's red Thunder Falcon sports car parked directly in front. She could almost feel the disdain radiating from the fancy automobile. She jogged out to the car in the hope that her mother wouldn't be too upset with her.

"You can do this one little film thing," the bottle redhead told her daughter harshly, without so much as a 'hello,' "But you're done after that."

"But why?" Anna Elizabeth protested as she shoved her book bag into the floorboard and buckled her seatbelt.

"Because your daddy don't want no daughter interested in that Hollywood mumbo jumbo," she spat, putting the car in drive and speeding away from the school. "Yer aunt likes all that and he can't stand her. And I ain't gon keep comin' here pickin' you up at four. You know that's when I got my stories. You told me you didn't want to do pageants no more, but that don't mean you can do all this foofoo stuff after school."

Anna Elizabeth sighed and slumped down in her seat. Screw her selfish mom and what her dumb daddy wanted.

* * *

_Someday we'll tell ourselves "Oh my God, this is paradise."_

* * *

After a deathly silent ride, Laura waited until she and her daughter were behind the closed doors of her home before exploding. She roughly shoved Anna Elizabeth, causing her book bag to fall off her shoulder and crash to the ground, followed by a hard slap across the face.

"We can't see your daddy until Sunday!" she screamed. "We coulda seen 'im last Monday if you would been at school for me to pick you up like ya dumb ass is s'posed to!" She brought her fist down on Anna Elizabeth's shoulder, causing the tiny girl to lose her balance and fall to the carpet. "Why are you so goddamn selfish you little brat!"

"I'm sorry, Mama," she apologized, tears welling in her eyes. Out of fear, she didn't wipe them away, nor did she make any sudden movements. "I didn't know."

Her mother laughed scornfully and started to pace, her heels thudding on the carpet. " _You didn't know_ ," she repeated sarcastically. Her hands shot to her head, gripping red locks tightly. "You didn't  _know_!" She started banging the side of her head with the ball of her hand, her fist pulling some of her hair as she did so.

"Mama, stop," Anna Elizabeth pleaded, slowly standing. "You're hurting yourself."

Before she could even blink, Laura lashed out at her daughter, backhanding her so hard that a bone popped in her neck. Anna Elizabeth held the already red spot, looking at her mother in wide eyed shock.

"You don't tell me what to do!" she hollered. She reached out and snatched a clump of her daughter's hair, yanking it from the ponytail. "I'm your mother and you listen to me. You better be damn near stupid thinking it's the other way around!"

Shaking her daughter's head roughly, much to her loud protests, she pulled her over to the stairwell and, once again, threw her daughter against the carpeted stairs, slightly burning her chin. "Get your ungrateful ass upstairs," she hissed lowly.

Quietly, Anna Elizabeth complied. And when she'd scurried up halfway, her book bag smashed into her back, knocking her down and causing her to hit her head on one of the stairs. "Take your shit with you!" her mother bellowed.

Fighting the urge to groan in pain, Anna Elizabeth fumbled for the strap of her book bag and hoisted it up, rushing up the remaining stairs. She gently closed her bedroom door and dropped her bag beside it. Tears burning her eyes, she rushed to her desk and pulled a pen and paper from one of the drawers, slamming them both down on the wooden surface.

She can't put up with this. This is…too much. She needs to get away from this evil bitch monster, at least for a day.

She had one of her mom's sixteen credit cards beneath her pillow where it'd been since they moved to LA. She decided she was going to treat herself to some relaxation, and her mother was going to pay for it.

Trying her best to mimic her mother's childlike handwriting, she forged a note with some bogus dentist appointment so she could skip school tomorrow. After signing her mother's name at the bottom, proud at the mirror image of her mother's signature, she walked over to her bed and pulled out the credit card, running her thumb over the embossed letters.

A spa day courtesy of Laura Jean Ragland?

Now  _that_ would be a dream.

* * *

_Someday we'll tell ourselves "Oh my God, this is paradise."_

* * *

**An hour later.**

Thrift shops where her favorite things back home. There were only two, but Anna Elizabeth spent a lot of time in them, foraging for forgotten gems. She hadn't gone to find any yet—and she was sure there were a lot of them—but she would read the Spark Blood series to tide her over until she found one. She had made it halfway through the third book where Arnold and Elizabeth were preparing for a war between vampires and witches when her mother knocked on the door.

"Nicky?" Laura called. "Can I come in?"

Replacing her bookmark, the tiny obsidian-haired teen put her book down on her nightstand and quickly moved to the door, her feet gliding gracefully across the carpet. She opened it to meet her mother's apologetic eyes.

"I'm sorry for being so mean to you," she apologized slowly. For the first time ever, she nervously fiddled with her fingers, keeping her eyes on her daughter. "I just…I love your daddy a lot and I just want us to be a family again. I haven't seen him since you were about two and it's been really hard for me. I miss him more than you'll ever know, baby girl, and I'm well past ready to be with him again." She reached around to her back pocket and pulled out a small black box with an even smaller smile. "For being so mean."

Anna Elizabeth smiled slightly at her mother as she took the box. She opened it and gasped at the gold bracelet with a bar in the middle with 'love' scribbled on it in a fancy script. "It's so pretty," she breathed in surprise. She looked up at her mother with a broad, genuine grin. "Thank you, Mama."

"You're welcome, Sugar." Her daughter stepped forward to give her a hug, but she stepped back cautiously. "Dinner will be ready soon." She hurriedly descended the stairs and her daughter sighed.

Anna Elizabeth didn't want a hug anyway.

* * *

_Someday we'll tell ourselves "Oh my God, this is paradise."_

* * *

**Saturday.**

Darla refused to talk to Mason for the rest of the week. She felt like she should text him, but she told herself she needed to wait for an apology. He was wrong for doing what he did and she was sure he knew that, so she had to force herself not to text him first.

When she got home Wednesday afternoon, her mother was there waiting expectantly for her with a deep set scowl and a smartphone outstretched to meet her daughter. It seemed that the paparazzi—with a generous tip—managed to catch a few pictures of Darla in her skimpy bathing suit with her obviously older mystery man. The caption read: "Mystery Man Brings West-Oliver Daughter Out of Hiding" and the article went on to talk about their trip to the beach, over-exaggerating some things and even detailing Mason's inappropriate embrace in the ocean and their "steamy" encounter in the changing room.

Needless to say, Jade was  _livid_.

Darla had been grounded for a week: no phone (so she couldn't text Mason even if she wanted to), no TV, no band rehearsal, no skateboarding, nothing. Her father, however, thought his wife was being a little too harsh and convinced her to allow Darla to have friends over as long as they stayed in the living room while an adult was home.

She almost exiled her daughter to her room for the get-together, but luckily her husband had persuaded her otherwise.

Darla crossed and uncrossed her legs as she sat by the pool while her dad manned the grill. She drummed her fingers on the plastic arm of the chair, unable to stop thinking about Mason.

What was he doing right now? Had he tried to text her? What if he wanted to break up with her now? Why didn't she just let him do what he wanted at the beach and relax like he told her to?

"Rocky," Beck called from the grill. Her head snapped up to him as if coming out of a daze. "Can you go help your mom in the kitchen? Everyone's gonna be here soon."

She sighed and lazily rose to her feet. "Can't you do it and I'll take over the grill?" she suggested in a longshot.

Her father shook his head with a small smile. "I know you two aren't really happy with each other," he started, "But this isn't something new; we have this barbecue every year. If you want your mom to lighten up on you, go help her in the kitchen."

His daughter groaned and stomped around the length of the pool with her arms crossed to go inside. And the second she stepped over the threshold, the doorbell rang.

"Someone get the door!" Jade shouted from the kitchen.

Darla rolled her eyes and made her way to the front door since no one else would. Upon opening it, Tori Kerrigan smiled down at her, her husband and sons at her side. Hector had his camera rolling while Tony clicked away on his cell.

"I brought potato salad!" she sang as Darla stepped aside to let the family of four in.

"Dammit, Vega," Jade shouted from the kitchen. She rushed out, a potato salad-covered spoon in her hand and a dark look in her eyes. "You do this every year! I keep telling you that  _I'm_  making the potato salad!"

"And every year you burn the potatoes," Tori snarled, gripping her Tupperware tightly.

When a growling Jade started to lunge for Tori, both Darla and Danny jumped between them to stop them.

"Jade!" Beck called from outside. "Can't we have one year where you  _don't_  try to kill Tori? Don't make me have to leave this grill!"

"Shove it!" Jade screamed, turning around and heading for the kitchen.

"It's so good to see you again, Darla," Tori announced once Jade disappears out of sight. She winced when she heard the loud clanking of the angered mother chucking the spoon in the sink.

"It's good to see you too, Mrs. Kerrigan," Darla greeted with a genuine smile.

"Where's Jen?" Tony piped up, finally looking up from his phone.

"In his room," she answered, crossing her arms. "He's probably still asleep."

"I can wake him up," he announced with a mischievous grin.

"And I can film it!" Hector shouted excitedly, running after his brother and darting up the stairs.

Tori sighed softly, still finding it so easy to be amazed at how crazy her boys were. She patted the girl before her on the shoulder as she led her husband out to the backyard. Darla almost closed the door when a black sneaker blocked the doorway.

"I hope we're not late for the party," Blake announced, pushing the door open and nearly knocking the teen down, his Australian accent still prominent after eighteen years in the States.

"We're just waiting for my aunt and uncle," she announced as he, his wife, Erica, and his ten year old daughter Miranda stepped in.

"I brought sour cream and onion chips," Trina proclaimed, holding up two bags.

" _Great_!" Jade screamed from the kitchen. "Another  _stupid_  addition from another stupid Vega."

"Remind me again why we're here?" Trina mumbled to her husband under her breath with a pointed glare at the kitchen.

"Your friends are my friends, too, Honey," Blake muttered back. "You only need to see Jade once a year."

"I'd like it if it were less," she hissed, her heels thudding softly against the white carpet. Her husband quickly followed suit, draping his arm around her shoulders as he fell into his regular smooth stride.

"Kendall's playing in the pool," Darla directed to Miranda, referring to her little brother.

The tiny brunette's face lit up with joy and she bounced in place, ready to run. "See ya!" she exclaimed, running out the back door.

Erica laughed slightly as she closed the door with a sly smile pointed at Darla. "So tell me about your mystery man," she prodded, skittering over to poke her friend repeatedly in both shoulders. "Where's he go to school? Does he even go to school? How old is he? Where'd you meet him?"

"Jesus Christ, Mom," the dark haired girl groaned, walking over to the couch and falling back onto it. "One question at a time would be nice." She ticked off the answers on her fingers. "USC, yes because he goes to USC, twenty-two, and I ran into him—literally—at the mall about two weeks ago. Did I get everything?"

"Yes you did!" Erica answered with a chipper voice and a bounce in her step, following her parents and sister. "I hope your aunt and uncle hurry up; I'm getting hungry."

"Food'll be ready soon!" Beck announced from the backyard, his voice booming into the house.

From the couch, she sighed. She was in for two hours of hanging around outside with her parents' friends while trying to pretend to have fun with her own, even though she desperately wished she could be with Mason.

Luckily, the keys jingling in the door pulled her from her self-loathing. She sat up with a warm smile for Cat and Robbie once they entered the house, hand in hand. "It's about time!" she exclaimed, jumping off the couch.

"Sorry," Cat apologized with a wide grin and an airy tone. "We just got held longer than we thought we would."

Robbie brought her hand to his lips and kissed it, smiling contently. They both glowed radiantly as he brought his eyes to his best friend's daughter. "Let's go start the party!" he suggested happily.

Excitedly, Darla ran up to them and grabbed their free hands, leading them out back.

* * *

_Someday we'll tell ourselves "Oh my God, this is paradise."_

* * *

Sitting around the large metal patio table, the group of thirty-somethings felt like they were in high school again, despite the children that wedged themselves between them. They've all changed in appearance—Trina in personality as well—but they were all the same group that grew up together.

Much to Beck's dismay, Jade cut her long locks to a short shoulder-length, and she didn't bother with the colorful hair extensions anymore; she still kept it black for his sake. Two kids did her bosom well, and she loved to flaunt her endowment, even in a friendly little get-together. She'd gotten to the point where if she wore any makeup at all, she only wore eyeliner.

If only everyone could be so lucky.

Beck wasn't much for change. His hair was still the near cropped cut it was in high school, but the laugh lines around his eyes were starting to give up his age. Not that anyone minded it, though. And having to keep up with his ever demanding wife, he'd gotten to be a bit more outspoken. They got into more fights because of it, but Hollywood ate it up…and it made for great sex later.

Trina liked to wear her hair in box braids now, a fad that died off in the early 2010s. She put a few blonde highlights in her hair, and maintained a neat fringe right above her always immaculate eyebrows. She didn't dress as flashy or as provocative, but her style still had a bit of the old Trina in it. As with Erica, she hadn't put on much weight in her pregnancy with Miranda Corrine. Terrified of aging, she liked to cake on the makeup to make herself look young forever.

She could give drag queens a run for their money.

Like Beck, Tori hadn't really changed at all. She'd got a few more curves—including Hector's baby weight that she  _still_  hadn't bother to get completely rid of—and she acquired a certain glow to her that could light up a room. Unlike in high school, she always made sure her nails were kept up with the craziest designs she can think of.

Cat and Robbie were still the epitome of adorkable. She still dyed her hair red, but she wore it curly now. Something about hair straighteners having a suicide vendetta. She wore dresses every now and then, but she started sticking to loose pants and tight blouses. Sensible shoes and pretty bows in her hair became her staples. If anything, she still looked sixteen.

Robbie, on the other hand, looked thirty four. He wore contacts now, terrified of laser eye surgery, and Cat couldn't stop gazing into his perfect brown eyes every chance she got. At first, she was against his buzz cut, but she eventually grew to love it and he'd kept it going for five years now. When he wasn't busy with working on scoring for movies, he liked to spend time in the gym, so he had a little bit more muscle now. He could finally carry Cat over the threshold.

It wa kind of weird.

Though Blake and Danny weren't part of the original Hollywood Arts gang and neither of them were no substitute for Andre, Blake had been welcomed like he was part of the group all along while they slowly inched Danny in.

Keeping up with the photographer's lifestyle, Blake let his neat black buzz cut grow out in shaggy locks that he constantly had to push out of his shocking blue eyes. He kept stubble on his chiseled, dimpled jaw, but Trina didn't seem to mind. She loved her rugged hero no matter what. It was still hard to believe that a photographer would have a well-built body, but he never let it slack. He vowed to always be Trina's Australian Adonis.

And finally, Danny got fat.

There was no sugarcoating it. When everyone found out that he'd become the CEO of _Oscar's Wilde Wonderland_ , they thought he'd be over the fast food scene, but Oscar gave him a heart attack for lunch—and sometimes dinner—every day that he graciously devoured without a second thought. He'd slicked his hair back and, to be honest, it creeped Tori out. He also used to be a lot like Beck, but now he was turning out to be as mean and sinister as Jade.

Without being under a microscope, everyone was blissfully happy, just as they should be.

After everyone finished their hotdogs and burgers, Cat shot to her feet and clank her fork against her Champaign glass. "I have an announcement," she chirped happily.

"Don't start without me!" a voice called from the back gate.

Everyone turned in shock and the adults—aside from Blake, Beck, and Jade—gasped when none other than Andre Harris towered over the gate.

As he unlocked the gate, a dazzling smile plastered on his face, they all took in his bigger stature. His shoulders were a bit broader, but he still had his trademark dreads pulled back out of his face. His jaw squared up a bit and his cheeks were a little less full, but his eyes were still as bright as ever. Everyone expected him to be homeless or something, but they were all pleasantly surprised—aside from Danny, obviously—to see him in expensive looking threads.

"I brought pound cake," he announced heartily, holding up a big plastic cake holder in the air.

"Finally!" Hector called out, shooting up from the table despite his mother's voice calling out to him. He ran up to Andre and took the Tupperware with a gracious bow. "I thought I was gonna die from sweet deprivation!" He carried the cake back to the large table with pride.

"W-what are you doing here?" Tori stammered as she stood, wringing her hands.

"Jade invited me," he answered, strolling up to the table. "I was actually surprised she found me. I've been trying to lay low."

Jade stood when he neared her to give him a big hug. "It's good to see you're okay," she told him. She turned back to her friends and the kids, keeping her arm around Andre's waist. "You all know I'm not one to be sentimental, but it isn't fair that we relive old times without him, so I did some digging."

"Where've you been?" Cat asked excitedly as she jumped up to run around the table and practically tackle him in a hug.

"Whoa there, Lil' Red," he chuckled, effortlessly catching her. He patted her back in the hug. "I've been in Norway for the last five years, but I was in Pasadena before that."

Beck stood to clap his old friend on the shoulder when Cat moved out of the way. "You could've sent us some messages or something," he pointed out with a wide, disbelieving grin.

Andre laughed. "I know," he acknowledged. "I just needed some time to myself, and then things got chaotic and I never found the time."

"What have you been up to?" Tori asked nervously as she slowly made her way to him. She smiled contently when he hugged her as tightly as she was hoping he would. "You look great," she told him softly.

"You look better," he responded quietly. He smiled broadly when they broke their extra-long hug. He hiked up his shirt slightly, as if stretching imaginary suspenders. "I don't like to brag or nothing," he joked, "But I'm a DJ now. Tiesto picked me up back in 2014 and it's been a heck of a ride ever since."

"Who?" Tony questioned, his voice muffled by his mouthful of cake.

"He's the highest paid DJ in the world," Andre answered proudly.

Beck clapped his friend on the back again. "But that's gonna be you soon, right?"

"I'm tryin'," he laughed, pulling his friend into a big hug.

Danny cleared his throat and stood slowly. "I just remembered I have a business meeting to get to," he announced, pretending to check his phone.

"No you don't," Tori snapped, glaring darkly at him. "Let's just be civil."

Danny scoffed. "Civil?" he snarled.

"Kids, I think it's time you all went inside," Beck urged hurriedly, motioning for them to stand up. At least Tori and Danny had the decency to wait until he ushered them inside and closed the glass door. No one really cared if they watch though.

"I've been nothing  _but_  civil with you for the past two years, Tori," he griped. "If I get any more civil, I'll start another war!"

"Can we not do this now?" she spit, crossing her arms.

Jade plopped back into her seat and reclined, propping her feet up on the table with a devilish grin and enticing eyes. "Let's do this now," she urged. "I need some unscripted drama in my life."

"Jade," Beck admonished quietly.

"No!" Danny shouted, keeping his eyes on his wife. "Let's do it now. Better to go ahead and get it over with."

"Danny, please," she begged quietly, all anger retreating from her face.

"I'm done pretending, Tori," he told her sternly. He turned to everyone else, his eyes clouded with annoyance. "We haven't had sex in  _eight_  years."

_"What's going on?" Jensen asked from inside, nudging his sister with his elbow. "I can't see their mouths."_

_Tony's dad just said they haven't had sex in eight years, Darla signed with her eyes locked on the scene. Her brother made a disgusted face, flipping his eyes back and forth between her and the adults._

"You act like you don't even want to anymore," Tori accused, narrowing her eyes.

"Because you always have an attitude when I get home!" her husband shouted.

"Because you always come home at two in the morning when I'm trying to sleep!" she countered.

"Well you know what?" he snarled, his voice low and dripping with venom. "You can get all the sleep you want after the divorce!"

This time, even Jade gasped.

Tori lowered her eyes, unable to look at anyone. There it was…out in the open. They'd been planning it for a few months now, and she wanted to keep it quiet until everything was finalized, but there it was. Embarrassed didn't even brush the tip of the iceberg on how she felt.

Her face grew hot as her eyes were about to water. Covering her mouth with her hand, she ran back toward the house. The teenagers and children inside all move to the side to allow her to rip open the sliding door and run inside.

Seething, Danny clunk over to Andre. He shoved the taller man with malice, his mouth in a tight line. "You want her back?" he hissed. "Take her." With that, he stormed through the back gate to the front yard and climbed into his Mercedes. The tires squealed like bats out of Hell as he whipped out of the driveway.

* * *

_Someday we'll tell ourselves "Oh my God, this is paradise."_

* * *

"I don't see why you're so pissed at me," Jade grumbled as she washed uneaten potato salad out of her bowl. "I didn't know Vega's marriage was on the rocks." She stood with her husband in the kitchen, both doing the dishes while everyone else awkwardly sat in the living room in silence.

"Stop  _calling_  her that!" he shouted, causing everyone to wince. He threw a spoon into the soapy water, splashing it onto his shirt. "You could at least show a little sympathy, you know that? You didn't have to egg their fight on!"

Jade rolled her eyes. "Sympathy or not," she started, "There's nothing anyone can do to fix this. You said it yourself you never liked Danny and liked her better with Andre."

"We can all hear you, you know," Andre called from his spot on one of the couches.

"You knew it was true anyway," Jade called back over her shoulder as she scrubbed dried mustard from a plate. She turned back to her husband. "Maybe this is a good thing," she said in a lower voice.

"How could this  _possibly_  be good?" Beck whispered.

"They were getting a divorce anyway," she pointed out. "Maybe now she can rekindle stuff with Andre and you can be happy that the old gang is back together."

He grunted slightly and kissed her on the cheek. "Let's hope."

* * *

_Someday we'll tell ourselves "Oh my God, this is paradise."_

* * *

_Are you okay?_  Jensen signed to his friend.

 _Not really,_  Tony signed back.  _How would you feel if your parents were getting a divorce?_

 _Shitty,_ Jensen replied,  _But I wouldn't be surprised._

 _Their fighting is different,_  Tony passed off,  _They're still obviously in love._

_I guess._

_I don't want to talk about it anymore._

With a curt nod, Jensen faced forward, leaning his head back on the couch cushion.

At the other side of the living room, Erica wrapped her arms around her little cousin's shoulders while he rested his head on her chest, staring blankly at the floor. Miranda held his hand tightly, resting her own head on his shoulders. Hector hadn't spoken since he heard his dad shouting. The older Michaels girl tried to get him to talk, but he'd been silent for the past hour and it didn't look like that was going to change any time soon.

They all turned to look at Tori when they heard her descending the stairs with a sniffle.

Andre stood before anyone else. "Tor, I'm sorry," he apologized with saddened eyes. "I shouldn't have come."

"It wasn't your fault," she assured him with a weak smile as she clung to herself. "We haven't really been happy for a while now."

"Do you really think that's something you should say in front of your kids?!" Tony shouted, shooting to his feet. "You've got two kids, Mom. You  _can't_  get a divorce! We need  _both_ of you. Why couldn't you just work whatever shit you got with Dad out?"

"Watch your language, Antonio David," his mother ordered, trying to be at least somewhat convincing despite her frayed demeanor.

"Bite me," he sneered, turning on his heels and exiting the house through the back door.

Andre held up a hand to her when she started to go after him. "Give him some space," he advised. "This is a lot for one day."

Tori pointed a finger at him with fire in her eyes. "You do  _not_  get to come here and tell me how to treat my kid," she seethed, finally being convincing.

"Chill out, Vega," Jade directed as she and Beck exited the kitchen. "Andre's only trying to help."

As Tori started to square up to the older mother, Cat grabbed her husband's hand tightly, waiting for the inevitable backlash.

_3:58 PM From: Unlisted Number_

_Hey, it's Jensen. Are you free?_

**4:02 PM To: Jensen**

**As I'll ever be. What's up?**

While Tori and Jade are hashed it out, going at each other like feral cats while Andre and Beck respectively held them back, Darla noticed her brother pull out his phone clicking away to none other than Anna Elizabeth. She quickly snatched the phone from him and erased his message to type her apology, much to her brother's protest.

_4:04 PM From: Jensen_

_It's Darla! I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier._

Jensen snatched the phone back when she finished her message, but showed her Anna Elizabeth's message of forgiveness.

**4:05 PM To: Jensen**

**Lol it's okay**

_4:05 PM From: Jensen_

_Sorry, she took my phone. Do you want to rehearse today?_

**4:05 PM To: Jensen**

**I guess we can. Text me your address?**

_4:07 PM From: Jensen_

_Can't. There's a big fight going on and I gotta get outta here._

**4:08 PM To: Jensen**

**I know the feeling… Where do you want to practice then?**

_4:08 PM From: Jensen_

_Meet me in front of the mall in thirty minutes._

**4:08 PM To: Jensen**

**Okay…I'll text you if something comes up.**

Out of the corner of her eye, Darla looked to her aunt just as she placed a protective hand over her stomach. The teen raised a brow in suspicion, and the suspicion heightened when Cat noticed her stare and slammed her hand back down on the couch.

Whoever this Andre guy was, he sure picked the perfect time to make his reappearance.

* * *

_Someday we'll tell ourselves "Oh my God, this is paradise."_

* * *

Anna Elizabeth lightly scratched the hole in the knee of her jeans as she sat in the back of a taxi, appreciations from Laura's credit card. She'd decided on wearing the pair she'd torn because she knew she'd be very anxious about hanging out with Jensen.

When she pulled up to the mall, the cabbie quickly swiped the card and she got out, her eyes locked on Jensen as he stood awkwardly in front of the doors.

 _Be cool_ , she instructed herself, taking in a deep breath.

When he spotted her, he waved with a charming smile and a nod, causing her to squeak and cover her mouth. She dropped her hand when she skipped up to him, paying extra attention so she wouldn't fall.

"You ready?" he asked.

She nodded, pressing her lips together tightly.

He tilted his head to the door, instructing her to follow. He held the door open for her like a gentleman and led her to Playing the Field, the music store Tyler's dad owned. He ushered her to the back to the hidden recording studio.

"It's quiet," he told her once he closed them off in the soundproof room. He smiled warmly at her. "I like quiet."

She felt a slight blush and quickly turned from him, fumbling for her script in the new, large purse that Laura bought. "So do you want to start from when we first meet each other?"

Thanks to the soundless room, Jensen could hear the ghost of her words a little bit better, taking some of the strain away. "Sure," he breathed contently.

Anna Elizabeth put her purse down on the floor and lay down, staring at her script.

Jensen flipped to the appropriate page in his own script and cleared his throat. "Are you normally one to trespass on another person's land?" he questioned, getting into character.

She gasped and sat up. "My apologies," she read, trying to suppress her southern accent as best she could.

"It is quite alright," he returned, his eyes glued to the page. He walked over to her and gave her his hand. "Might I escort the young lady home? It is far too dangerous for anyone to be out this late."

She forced a smirk, feeling her mouth twitching. She would need to work on that before filming. "Then what do you propose to do once you leave me?"

He laughed softly. "My father taught me to defend myself well," he assured her.

She took his hand and allowed him to help her up. "In any case," she started, "I am also capable of defending myself if need be. But thank you for offering. And thank you for being so kind."

As the script instructed her to, she looked down at his hand still holding hers and then into his eyes before he met her gaze. "The world needs much kindness," he breathed quietly. Then, he leaned in to kiss her.

Anna Elizabeth's body stiffened, obviously thrown off guard…as if she had any guard to begin with. When he pulled away from her, a line of red raged across her nose and cheeks. "That's not part of the script," she whispered, not taking her eyes from his.

His face fell and a pang of rejection filled his eyes. "I'm sorry," he whispered back.

She smiled slightly. "Don't be." She dropped her script and placed her hand on the back of his head, gripping his other hand excitedly as she stretched on her tip toes to kiss him again.

* * *

_Someday we'll tell ourselves "Oh my God, this is paradise."_

* * *

**Three hours later.**

Out of both boys, Hector hated his parents fighting the most. He remembered that they used to fight a lot when he was five, and he would always slip into his brother's room when they did. Now, though Tony would never admit it, Hector sat on his brother's bed, hugging him tightly as he curled against him.

_"I still can't believe how you were all over him!" Danny shouted, his voice booming through eldest son's door._

_"I was not 'all over him,'" Tori shot back maliciously. "I was just trying to talk to my old friend!"_

_"Who also happens to be your ex-boyfriend," Danny threw out._

_"_ Oh _," Tori hissed._ The boys flinched upon hearing a loud slap _. "Do_ not  _play that game with me, Danny! You were my ex-boyfriend_ long _before he was."_

_"But now I'm your husband!"_

_"Right now you're not being a good one!"_

They boys flinched again when they hear glass breaking _. "Well you know what?" Danny seethed. "You can marry him after we get our divorce since he'd be a_ much _better husband!"_

_"I wish you would stop overreacting," Tori spat, her voice barely audible to her sons._

_"You're the one who's overreacting," their father accused just as low. "You're the one who's been sleeping on the couch for the past two months."_

_"Because you kept whining about how your back hurts so badly after_ you _slept there! I practically sleep by myself anyway."_

 _"What do you want from me, Tori? Don't I give you everything you ask for? You want the house? You want the kids? Take_ everything _!"_

 _"They're_ your _children, too, Danny. You can't just throw them away like you do with your money!"_

 _"Well at least_ I _make money," he shot back after a brief, mocking laugh. "That little internet thing you do isn't making shit for you. The minute I leave, you'll be out on the streets!"_

When Hector started sniffling, Tony soothingly rubbed his arm, unsure of what else to do.

_"Where the hell are you going?" they hear their father yell after loud stomping._

_"Far away from you!" their mother shouted distantly as she slammed the front door, causing her sons to wince again._

* * *

_Someday we'll tell ourselves "Oh my God, this is paradise."_

* * *

It normally took only a ten minute drive to make it to the West-Oliver abode, but Tori's blind rage put her there in six. Pulling up to the house, she slammed her car door after getting out and banged loudly on the front door after stepping up to it.

"Who the hell is banging on my door like an idiot?!" Jade shouted from inside. "I keep telling you stupid paparazzi that Jennifer Lopez doesn't live here anymore!"

"Jade, let me in!" Tori yelled over her incessant banging.

Moments later, her old frenemy ripped open the door. "What is it, Vega?" she spat. "You think you can come back here after you tried to attack me when I was actually trying to be _nice_  for a change?"

"Can you get in touch with Andre for me?" Tori asked quietly, crossing her arms and avoiding the question.

Jade groaned dramatically and turned around, leaving the door open to allow Tori to let herself in. She headed over to the coffee table and shuffled through the papers on top of it, pulling out a small balloon-shaped sticky note moments later. "It's got the number to the hotel on it," she announced as she handed it to Tori. "He might not even be there, but it's all I got right now."

Tori smiled weakly. "Thanks," she breathed. She quickly enveloped the taller woman into a hug, who begrudgingly hugs her back. "I'm sorry about earlier." She turned on her heels and quickly left without another word to Jade, slamming the door.

When she got back into her car, she pulled out her phone and dialed the number on the sticky note.

It rang twice before the concierge picks up. He greeted her, asked her how he could help her, and told her he would direct her call to Andre's room after she gave his name. Three rings later, her old boyfriend picked up.

_"Hello?" he called tiredly._

"Andre," Tori began, her voice strained, "It's Tori."

_"H-hey, Tori," he stammered. "Are…is everything okay?"_

A sob escaped her lips, but she regained her composure with a loud sniffle. "Not really," she answered honestly. "Can I…can I see you?"

_"Sure," he agreed almost too eagerly. "Give me another call when you're downstairs and I'll come get you."_

"Okay," she whispered.

* * *

_Someday we'll tell ourselves "Oh my God, this is paradise."_

* * *

**Thirty minutes later.**

As soon as Andre stepped off the elevator into the glorious lobby of  _Le Petite Argent_ , Tori ran up to him and threw her arms around his neck, crying silently into his shirt. He wrapped his arms around her waist to comfort her, rubbing the small of her back gently.

Eventually, they made it back up to his room.

Once inside, she went straight to the bed and fell face first onto it, burying herself into the covers. "My life is a  _mess_!" she shouted ruefully, her voice muffled by the 3,000 thread count sheets. "Your bed is  _so_  soft," she whined.

He laughed softly. "Run that by me again," he said.

She shot up and wiped her running mascara with another loud sniffle. "This is a disaster," she said as she plopped down on the edge of the bed.

Andre took the spot beside her and wrapped his arm around her shoulder securely. "These things happen, Tor," he assured her.

She sighed and rested her head on his shoulder. The smell of Dulce de Leche, her favorite shampoo, filled his nose and head with pleasant memories that would take him three lifetimes to forget. "I know," she acknowledged, "But this marriage has just taken one wrong turn after the next."

"What do you mean?"

Tori wiped her eye with another sniffle and closed both of them to keep new tears from forming. "When Antonio was seven and Hector was five," she began after a deep breath, "I got pregnant again. Danny was just starting to get ahead with  _Oscar's_  and I knew he would be too busy. There was no way I could ask him to help out with the new baby, and I knew I wouldn't be able to take care of three kids by myself."

"But he's your husband," Andre reminded her. "Taking care of the kids, despite your job, comes with the territory."

She shook her head, slightly tickling his neck. "I just didn't want to bother him," she explained. She took in another deep breath, letting her next sentence out in a slow exhale. "So I had an abortion."

Andre stiffened slightly, but didn't say anything. Tori laughed in spite of herself. "You can say it," she allowed.

"Say what?" he inquired. "That's…that's your business what you do with your body."

"But it was wrong," she whispered sadly. A sob erupted from her throat and she quickly covered her mouth to stifle it. For a moment, they sat in silence while tears spilled beneath her eyelids.

"I didn't tell him anything," she finally stated in a quiet voice. She opened her eyes to stare sadly at the carpet. "But…he acted different, like he knew about it. Then, when things were settling down with his business, I got pregnant again and decided to keep it because he worked out his schedule so he could spend time with me and the boys."

"So what happened?" Andre wondered quietly, somewhat afraid of the answer.

"We started having financial troubles," she confessed, keeping her eyes on the carpet. "It stressed me out because I was the one who had to deal with making the budgets and managing how we spent our money. He bought his car, a condo in Venice, and additions to the house. We were really in the red and I had to ask my sister for money, something I hadn't done since we first moved in together. On top of the stress, I ended up forgetting to eat sometimes because I was so worried about taking care of everything else."

She whimpered slightly, holding her hand over her eyes after closing them. "I ended up having a miscarriage…"

This time, Andre wrapped his free arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him, planting a small kiss on the top of her head. "I'm so sorry," he whispered.

"I got over it," she whispered back, her voice slightly distant. "I got my mom to take me to the emergency room and we never spoke of it. But…I forgot to get the mail one day and Danny saw my hospital bill. I told him about the miscarriage, but he accused me of getting another abortion. And…that's when we stopped being happy together; he told me he couldn't trust me anymore."

Andre rubbed her back gently as she placed her hands on the side of his neck. "I'm so sorry, Tori," he apologized again. "I'm sorry it's been so hard for you…and that I didn't keep in touch. I was angry for a long time, but I still coulda talked to you every now and then. I got paperwork on a house about to go through; you can stay with me if you need to. You and your boys."

Tori looked up at him and smiled weakly, her eyes bloodshot. "Thank you so much," she breathed. "And it doesn't matter anymore that you stopped talking to me. It only matters that you're here now."

He smiled back at her and leaned in to plant a soft kiss on her lips. He started to pull away, but she held him there and kissed him back, feeling warmth in his kiss that she hadn't felt in a very long time.


	3. Surrender

* * *

_"Taken down, I give into what I can't disguise. Broken down, I give into what I can not have. Locked in, buried under my skin, riding on the whispers, restless in the wind, hunted, I can feel it coming." – Digital Daggers_

* * *

 

**Sunday morning.**

"We didn't get to tell them yesterday," Cat mumbled as she lay on her back, staring up sadly at the ceiling.

"We'll tell them later," Robbie promised in his half asleep state. He snuggled up closer to her and placed his hand on her stomach beneath the comforter, kissing her bare shoulder. "They'll be just as excited as we are."

She gasped excitedly and shot up, knocking her husband's hand into her lap. "I'll make one of those cute little themed dinners!" she suggested, twirling the edge of a lock of hair. "I'll make baby carrots and baby squash and baby rutabagas!"

"I don't think anyone likes rutabagas," he joked quietly, his eyes still blissfully closed. "Or that those are real."

She breathed in deeply and fell back onto the bed, pulling the covers back to her chin. "I just wish Cassie were here," she sighed. "I'm sure she'd love a little brother or sister."

His eyes shot open and he stared at her in worry. She must have felt his arm tense along her body, because she turned on her side with a sad smile before kissing him on the lips.

"I'm okay," she assured him. She looked away with a thoughtful pout before looking back at him with a loving gaze. "Well, I'm as okay as anyone else in this situation. But we're gonna find her one day, and she's gonna be the best big sister to our little peanut."

Unsure of what else to do, he kissed her gently. "I love you," he whispered.

"I love you, too," she laughed back.

And as she kissed him again, he desperately hoped she'd be okay for the next nine months without her antidepressants.

* * *

_Keep me under cover in what could have been._

* * *

Hector slept curled against his brother for the entire night. He hated it the most that their parents were fighting, and he assumed his dad was still angry when he didn't come to check on them like he did any other time he and his wife argued.

He still hadn't spoken since he found out about the divorce, and Tony wasn't about to force him to.

If anything, the elder boy was angry. He was angry about the divorce, angry about his mother's ex-boyfriend coming back, and especially angry that his best friend's parents argued  _way_  more frequently than his own, yet  _they_  weren't getting a divorce.

He didn't understand why his parents couldn't get along, why they couldn't just kiss and make up. He and Hector needed both of them  _together_.

Around ten o'clock that morning, Danny and Tori Kerrigan were definitely together.

 _"I didn't think you'd even bother coming back," he seethed, standing near his son's door._ Even though Hector slept soundly, Tony had barely gotten any sort of sleep.

_"I just came to get a few things," she announced, trying to be as calm as possible. "I think it'd be best if I stayed with my parents for a while."_

_"You couldn't just get Andre to hire someone to get your stuff?" he questioned maliciously. "You must think I'm an idiot if you think I don't know you're staying with him."_

_"And what if I am?" she snapped. "You don't want anything to do with me anymore!"_

_Danny laughed scornfully. "It figures you'd go back to him," he snarled. "Are you so terrified of being alone that you'll latch back on to him because he's showing you affection?"_

Tony flinched slightly upon hearing a sharp slap. Hector stirred slightly, but didn't wake.

 _"Just because you're my husband," his mother began lowly, "And just because we're both unhappy with each other, you do_ not _get to talk to me that way. I get that you're still upset about the baby, that you don't trust me anymore, but I am_ still _a person. I treat you like one, so you could at least have the decency to do the same."_

For the longest of moments, everything was silent. Tony wondered what was going on, but didn't dare risk getting caught even further in the crossfire. Maybe five minutes later, he heard the front door slam shut. But by then, he was too numb from his anger to move.

He wasn't sure how long he laid there, staring blankly at his ceiling, but he finally moved when his little brother stirred awake beside him.

"Are Mom and Dad still fighting?" he asked groggily, keeping his head on the pillow and his eyes shut.

"Yeah," Tony breathed. "Get dressed and pack some stuff. We're gonna go stay with  _Abuelita_  and  _Abuelito_."

"Okay," Hector sighed, slowly climbing out of his brother's bed.

* * *

_Keep me under cover in what could have been._

* * *

As much as she hated it, Anna Elizabeth forced herself to delete all messages between her and Jensen. She had no doubt that her mother would try and confiscate her phone sooner or later, and everything would go to hell if she found out about him. Because of her dad, she didn't think they'd move again, but she doubted she'd even live to send him another message.

That morning, she paced around her room trying to think of anything she could do to get out of meeting her father. She didn't care if she ever met him, and that made her mom angry.

Her phone buzzed in her hand and she looked down at it, smiling.

**I miss you.**

She bit her lip, thinking about the kiss they shared not even twenty four hours ago. Kissing him felt better than kissing Paul ever did. She wanted nothing more than to stay with him and continue kissing him, but she had to go home.

The welts on her back were worth it.

_I miss you, too._

In a few hours, she would have to go see her dad. But maybe she could get out of it with Jensen's help…

_You wanna hang out today?_

She bit her lip again after sending the message, bouncing her knee nervously. With her free hand, she held her wrist, and lightly scratched it as her eyes honed in on her screen. He would be her only hope since Darla was grounded. She didn't think she was close enough to Erica to hang out with her, and it was blatantly obvious that Tony didn't like her.

_If you're not busy…_

Was that too much? Was she sending too many messages at once, bothering him? He wouldn't be too bothered by her, would he? Were they dating now? Did she have a new boyfriend?

**Sure. When and where?**

**No, I'm not busy.**

Suppressing a squeal, she jumped up and down in glee, grinning from ear to ear as her hair flapped around her. They would get to spend time with each other  _and_  she could avoid seeing her dad. Two birds with one stone!

_Can we meet at the mall again? ASAP!_

She put her phone down on her bed, bouncing around her room to get ready for their meeting. Maybe she would wear a dress today. She could straighten her hair… No, she didn't have enough time for that. Would a dress be too much for a casual get together? Or should she go with leggings? What about leggings and a top? God, how would she do her hair?

She ran over to her closet and pulled clothes out left and right, throwing them onto her floor without any regard. Her hand stopped on a floor-length, light purple sundress with a black trim near the bottom. She bit her lip in deliberation as she stared at it.

Because of her tiny frame, she often had to buy clothes from kids' sections. And most of the time, the clothes her mother bought her were too tight by her standards. She didn't think she was well endowed in the chest department, but the dress would definitely give the impression that she was. Would she be trying too hard to impress him if she wore it? The little spot on her knee that she'd been scratching all week had eventually ended up bleeding and scabbing over. Showing any kind of leg would be out of the question because of it.

Oh well.

She snatched the dress off the hanger and darted to her bathroom to think about how she would do her hair. Staring at the girl in the mirror, she pouted and scrunched her face. Her long, curly, black hair pointed every which way atop her head because she'd gone to bed without putting it in her usual top bun.

Brushing it would only make it worse.

Should she take another shower and wash it? No, she wouldn't have time for that either, and she hated going out with wet hair.

She'd been wearing a ponytail pretty much all week because she wasn't sure what to do with her hair—not that her mother was any help—so she didn't want to wear another.

Why was this so  _stressful_?!

She sighed and bundled her hair at the nape of her neck. A ponytail that left her hair draped over her right shoulder wouldn't be bad, right? It was casual enough, but it still gave the hint that she was at least trying to care about her appearance.

She snatched a scrunchie from her sink and pulled her hair into it, letting it fall over her right shoulder. She left a lock of hair to fall over her left eye and smiled in content before shimmying into her dress. Then, she hiked it up and ran back into her room to pick shoes that would look nice  _and_  cushion her fall when she jumped from her second story window.

Unfortunately, she didn't feel comfortable wearing tennis shoes with her dress. So she slipped on her thick-soled bedroom shoes and grabbed her favorite pair of gladiator sandals before scrunching her dress tightly into her hand to prevent it from flying up when she jumped.

She walked over to her open window and tossed her sandals out, watching them as the fell beside her mother's rose bushes. She grabbed the clutch wallet she'd recently been 'gifted' from Laura and leapt out of the window, thankful for the unbeatable balance provided by her years of cheerleading as she gracefully landed on her feet.

She put her clutch on the ground and slipped out of her bedroom shoes. She retrieved her sandals and hopped into them, zipping them up in the back before grabbing her clutch and taking off.

* * *

  _Keep me under cover in what could have been._

* * *

Laura drove hot under the collar, her fingers gripping the steering wheel tighter and tighter with every mile she drove that her daughter wasn't in the car.

They'd been planning this for a week now; it wasn't a surprise that they were going to see her father.

She should have put a tracker in that damn girl's phone.

She wanted to drive all over California to find her ungrateful child, but finding her lost love was more important.

The drive to Santa Monica was far too long, even with her accelerated driving speed. Her left leg bounced nervously as the minutes ticked away on her radio. She'd waited fourteen years to see him again, even longer to be with him.

It had been hell, waiting for him, but she would have waited forever if it meant she would get to be with him another day. She loved him far more than anyone would ever know, and she was not about to let some brat ruin this for her.

A grin raged from ear to ear as she pulled down the road that would lead to his house. She may not have been able to be with him over the last fourteen years, but she kept tabs on him. She made sure she knew where he lived, where he went to physical therapy, and what he'd been doing with his life.

He'd stayed at the same home in Santa Monica for fourteen years now. His physical therapy had given him back his ability to walk, but he still needed a cane since he would always carry a staggering limp. He'd gone through several jobs over the years since most jobs weren't always willing to hire ex-convicts, but he was never out of work for long.

But with her help, he would never need to worry about work ever again; she'd made enough money—though not always legal—to support their prospective family until Anna Elizabeth was ready to start her own family.

She parked her car in the driveway and took a deep breath.

This was it…

Slowly, she stepped out of the car and made her way to the front door. She probably should have called before she came over, but he hadn't planned on doing anything today, so the formality didn't matter.

Flashing her brightest smile, she rang the doorbell.

"Just a minute," he called, presumably from his small kitchen. He'd love her home in Glendale.

She held her hands behind her back to keep him from seeing her wringing them. If she saw how nervous he was, then he wouldn't take her seriously; he wouldn't see how much she loved him and he'd never take her back.

Agonizing moments later, Liam West opened the door, towering over her. For thirty-nine, his brown locks were already greying. There were lines beneath his eyes and around his lips, showing off his age. The only thing about him that hadn't changed, really, was the gratuitous amount of muscle on his upper body.

He squinted at her. "Can I help you?" he asked politely, scanning her up and down.

"Liam," she breathed excitedly in her Southern accent. "Baby, it's me." She reached out and grabbed his free hand. "I came back for you."

His eyes widened in confusion and he snatched his hand back, stumbling backward slightly. "Chris?"

She nodded eagerly.

"W-what the hell did you do to yourself?" he stammered, scanning her up and down once more. "You…you changed…"

"Well I had to," she stated simply. "That terrible sister of yours framed little old me for something I could never do! Don't you think I'm pretty anymore?"

Slightly stunned, he reached out and touched her hair.

"You like redheads, right?" Her voice started to falter, her face falling slightly. "I did all of this for you, baby."

He continued to give her his curious stare, running his hair through her colored locks.

"I have a surprise for you," she told him softly, looking up at him through her lashes. She looked inside his home. "Aren't you going to invite me in?"

Liam snapped out of his stupor and nodded. "Y-yeah," he stuttered, hobbling aside to allow her entry. "I don't know if I can handle any more surprises."

"Then you better sit down," Laura advised, walking into his living room and dropping her hands to her side. She took a seat in the recliner near the kitchen and crossed her legs, resting her hands atop her knee.

"You shouldn't be here, Chris," he told her, limping to the couch and plopping down on it.

"Baby, I need you to call me by my new name," she announced. "I go by 'Laura' now. I really missed you."

"It's been a long time," he acknowledged. "What's this other surprise?"

She smiled broadly and sat up straighter, excitement radiating through her. "I brought our daughter with us!" she exclaimed in an excited whisper.

Liam's face hardened, staring at her incredulously. "We…don't have a daughter," he reminded her slowly. "You lost the baby."

"I lost  _a_  baby," she corrected, her grin faltering slightly. It picked back up before she spoke again. "I was pregnant with twins, but I lost one of them; it's called vanishing twin syndrome. The doctors said that one of my babies won't developin' like the other, so I lost her. They said I probably woulda had two girls, but I'm so blessed that I have one." Her face fell into a dark grimace. "Or I woulda been if she won't so ungrateful that she wouldn't come to meet you."

For a moment, he looked down at his lap. The news…was too much for him to take in. How…how was this possible? She…she never said anything about multiple babies. How could he believe her? He'd believed that his sister had gotten pregnant with his twins—which he thought was a miracle—but then she'd shattered every renewed hope and dream of him being a father when she told him they weren't his.

But with Chris…with Laura, he hadn't been there with her when she'd had her miscarriage; he'd been at work. He'd been at work when she'd clinically confirmed her pregnancy. He couldn't exactly say she was lying; he had no proof.

And now, with his life finally getting back on track, he desperately wanted more than anything to be a father.

"Why didn't you bring her when you came here for my parole hearing?" he asked lowly, keeping his eyes on his lap. He slumped forward, resting his arms on his legs. He wasn't sure if he could look at her yet.

"I didn't want her to be around the movers," Laura answered. "She never liked loud noises, and I knew they'd scare her to death. My mama took real good care of her while I was away, and I was gonna bring her up here so we could start visitin' you since you won't in jail no more, but that witch of a sister of yours said I stole a baby. I had to leave and keep her away for a while; if anyone saw me with a baby girl, they'd think I went and took her. I promise that she's our baby girl, no matter how ungrateful she is."

He looked up to her, his eyes beginning to water. "Maybe she wasn't ready," he offered in a hushed whisper. He cleared his throat and sat up with a loud sniffle. "I couldn't be there for her for almost seventeen years; she might just need more time. Tell me more about her."

"Well she's turnin' seventeen this December," his ex-girlfriend explained happily. "She's got long black hair and the biggest brown eyes. She's the prettiest little girl I ever did see, and I know you'd think so, too. She's real smart, too. She did pageants like I used to do and she's real good at paintin'. I know you don't like all that artsy stuff, but I know you'd love her stuff."

"I can't believe it," he sighed, his eyes falling to the carpet. "I got a little girl."

Laura stood, giving a comforting smile that he didn't see. She walked over to him, her heels thudding slightly on the carpet. Descending as light as a feather, she sat beside him and put her hand on his cheek, turning his head so that he would face her. "You got a family," she amended quietly as she leaned in to kiss him lovingly.

* * *

  _Keep me under cover in what could have been._

* * *

"Would you be mad if I kissed you again?" Jensen asked quietly as Anna Elizabeth climbed into the Mazda his father had convinced his mother to let him have.

"I'd like it if you did," she breathed, thankful she didn't stutter as she met his eyes.

He leaned toward her and stopped centimeters in front of her face. "I really like you," he whispered, the warmth from his lips radiating to hers.

"I really like you, too," she whispered back, her eyes lulling to a close.

He lifted his hand to rest on her cheek and she closed the distance between them, pressing her lips eagerly against his. His lips caressed hers tenderly as his hand slid to her ponytail. Gently, he took the scrunchie in his fingertips and slid it off, pulling her hair slightly in the process—though she didn't protest. Her hair fell loosely behind her shoulder and he inched his hand to the back of her neck.

She brought her hands up to his neck and placed them on the side, her fingertips lightly resting on his skin. She started to feel a stirring sensation between her legs and quickly brought her hands back. She pulled back at him and looked at him nervously. If she let it go on, she would have slept with him right there in the front seat…in the parking lot of the mall.

"What are we?" she blurted out.

His eyes shot open and he sat up. "What?"

"I wanna know what our relationship is," she explained. "Are we…am I your girlfriend?"

"I want you to be," he answered honestly, "I want to be your boyfriend, and I want to get to know you more than I already have. Lately, you're the…first thing I think about when I wake up…and the last thing before I go to sleep."

She smiled broadly and grabbed his hand. She looked down at his hand in hers and gently ran her thumb over the back of it. "My last boyfriend took me on a lot of dates before he ever called me his girlfriend," she announced. She looked up at him with her innocent, doe-like eyes. "I needed that with him; it made me feel comfortable. But…I feel so comfortable around you."

"I want you to feel even more comfortable," he told her softly, brushing his free hand against her cheek. "If that's what you need to feel comfortable, I'll take you on as many dates as you want." He gave her a small smile before kissing her on the forehead. "I've got the perfect place."

* * *

_Keep me under cover in what could have been._

* * *

Lazily, Darla pushed her cart down the aisle of  _Brendon's_ , the organic grocery store twenty minutes north of Beverly Hills; her aunt thought it would be better if they started eating organic food—especially since they could afford it on a regular basis—and her father had convinced her mother to go along with it for the past five years.

Like her daughter, however, Jade couldn't tell the difference between the fancy stuff and whatever she could find at Wal-Mart, but she just went along with what Cat wanted since the erratic redhead could quickly become a nuisance about it.

Scanning the list, she pushed on through the aisles. Auntie Cat wanted a lot of vegetables, half of which she couldn't pronounce, and Uncle Robbie made it be known that he wanted brown eggs, not white. Her father wanted skim milk and regular butter, while her mother wanted two-percent and honey butter. She needed to pick up various kinds of beef, different cuts of chicken, turkey and turkey slices, ham, pork, and even… _lamb_. They wanted enough food to feed an army, and her biggest challenge would be loading all of this in and out of the tiny little car her mother let her 'temporarily' drive.

As she pushed her cart, turning down the snack aisle to pick up vegan brownie's and Kendall's chocolate covered pretzels, she kept her eyes on the list and inadvertently crashed into someone else's.

"Crap," she breathed hastily, dropping the list onto her purse in the baby seat before looking up. "I'm—Mason?"

"I'm pretty sure that's my name," he joked. He moved his cart out of the way in order to walk over to her and kiss her. "I missed you, babe."

"I m-missed you, too," she stammered out of shock and reflex after the kiss. Regardless of if she did or not, it was the first thing that came to mind. Then, she remembered she was supposed to be angry with him. She stepped back and crossed her arms, glaring. "I'm still upset about what you did."

He raised an eyebrow in confusion. "You didn't get my texts?" he questioned, disturbingly unfazed by her demeanor.

"I got grounded and my mother took my phone away," she announced flatly.

"I apologized," he told her, gripping the side of her cart. Her eyes darted down to it, her mouth plummeting to an annoyed scowl. He pulled it back and shoved it in his pocket. "I just can't help myself around you." His eyes softened to that of a guilty child's. "You're so damn sexy and it's hard for me to control myself around you."

"Well try harder," she spat, effectively masking her excitement with anger. She'd never once been told that she was sexy, especially not by an older, college boy. It was the self-esteem boost she didn't know she needed.

But was she verging into dangerous territory? The way he touched her, the way she caught him looking at her, suggested that he was most definitely wanted to have sex with her. While she didn't like that he'd tried to take advantage of her in the ocean, but she otherwise liked his touch.

Did she want him to be her first?

"Forgive me?" he pleaded, stepping up to her and wrapping his arms around her waist.

She looked away for a moment, keeping her arms crossed. Part of her didn't want to forgive him, to push him off, slam his cart out of the way, and go about her business, but he was her first boyfriend; other boys would probably act the same way. Tyler and Connor both talked about their scores with girls they'd  _just_  met. She didn't even want to  _know_  about her twin's conquests.

She'd been dating Mason for a few weeks now. He'd waited patiently to be intimate with her, since he undoubtedly wanted to, so maybe he was worth keeping. Maybe his outbursts were her fault. She was being difficult and of course it would leave him frustrated.

Maybe he was special, maybe he was taking things slow with her. She couldn't let him go then; she probably wouldn't find a guy as patient as him.

"Okay," she coved, looking back up at him as she uncrossed her arms.

Smiling in accomplishment, he leaned down to kiss her.

* * *

  _Keep me under cover in what could have been._

* * *

It made Anna Elizabeth nervous, not knowing where she was going, but she trusted that he would keep her safe. She wanted to turn the radio on since they drove for a way in near silence, but Jensen never made the move to turn it up, and he never gave her the okay to do so herself.

She kept wanted to talk to him, but her growing nervousness weighed her down. She had the strongest urge to scratch, but she couldn't do it in front of him; it'd freak him out. So instead, she focused on her breathing, trying to take in slow steady streams to calm herself.

When she couldn't focus on her breathing, she tried to keep her eyes on her surroundings, and they widened as she spotted a big red tent in the distance.

"What's that?" she asked, turning to the driver. At first, he didn't even act like he heard her, keeping his eyes locked on the road. She wondered if she spoken loud enough, or if she'd even spoken. Biting her lip in deliberation, she reached out to touch him on the shoulder.

"Hang on," he told her as he pulled over into a parking lot. By now, they were near the tent and she could see the big  _Marina del Rey Carnival_  sign in front of it. He turned to her with a warm smile. "Yeah?"

She turned away and shook her head. "Never mind," she breathed.

His face fell slightly, feeling as if he'd missed something important, but he forced the smile when she looked back to him with an excited grin.

"I've never been to a carnival before," she beamed.

"We like to take my little brother every year," he told her. "Dad thinks it's hard for him always in the spotlight, so we bring him to one twice a year to help him relax and make him feel like a kid."

"That's so sweet!" she gushed. "Let's go!" She wrenched the car door open and jumped out, bouncing excitedly as she waited for Jensen to join her. When he came up to her, she grabbed his hand tightly and ran with him to the front gates. Once there, he paid for their tickets and she ran with him onto the large boardwalk where the majority of the carnival games and some of the rides were held.

Being that she'd never been to a carnival before, she was ecstatic to see the variety of games they had. Upon the mole whacker—and various other animals—games, dart games, toss games, and baby golf, she dragged him to Bingo Shooter. When they stood in front of the large, multicolored booth with various stuffed animals and movie characters hung from the rafters, she pointed at a stuffed corgi. "Look how cute!" she exclaimed.

Amongst the crowd of chattering people, the hum of whirring machines, and the music playing obscure pop songs he couldn't make out, he didn't quite hear what she said. But he smiled at her anyway, taken aback by the radiance of her excited grin.

"One dollar to play," the booth operator, a Hispanic man in his late thirties and greying hair, announced enthusiastically. "Five shots. Get five balls in five consecutive slots on the board behind me and win the little lady a prize! They can go left to right, up to down, or diagonally, just as long as you get five in a row. Spell BINGO and you get two prizes."

Jensen looked back to Anna Elizabeth who had her eyes locked on the stuffed dog and turned back to the carnie with a determined glare before pulling a dollar from his wallet and sliding it over the counter. Pleased by the transaction, the carnie slid the dollar into a little box out of civilian sight and reached into another box to pull out five white tennis balls.

"Whenever you're ready."

Taking in a deep breath, Jensen pushed blond locks out of his eyes, careful not to let his CI show, and threw the first ball. He'd never really done sports—that was more of Darla's thing—so he was prepared to face the embarrassment of not being able to win anything. But to his surprise, he'd made the shot into the third row of the I column.

"You got one!" Anna Elizabeth exclaimed, her hair bouncing around wildly as she jumped in excitement. She held his bicep and looked up at him with big coffee-colored eyes that made him crave Starbucks. "It's okay if you don't win." She spoke lowly, and he couldn't really hear her. He gave her a small smile, but she could see in his eyes that he hadn't registered what she'd said. When he turned back to the game, she frowned and stepped away so he would be able to throw.

He threw another ball, but he felt how bad the throw was. He grimaced slightly when he made the ball in the N column, the spot diagonally above the first ball. He  _really_  wanted to win her two prizes in this game, but now he'd only have the possibility of getting one, as long as he didn't mess up.

With the third throw, he'd miraculously gotten the B slot diagonally below his first shot, and he'd gotten the O slot at the very top of the board. He doubted he would be able to make the G ball, but he desperately wanted to win the dog for her; that's what boyfriends did.

Putting all of his energy into it, he threw the ball as hard as he could…right into the second row of the N column…

"Oh," the carnival worker sighed, his features falling. "Better luck next time, son. But good try! Try again for only a dollar."

Jensen bit his lip in deliberation, but Anna Elizabeth stopped him as his hand slunk back to his wallet. He looked to her in confusion.

"Let's go try a different game," she suggested, pulling him away from the booth.

He sighed, feeling as though he'd failed her, but he said nothing of it as she led him to the Pirate's Pendulum. He most certainly was  _not_  a fan of heights, and he made a valiant effort to avoid this certain ride and others like it whenever his family visited the carnival. This ride would swing them back and forth up to two hundred feet off the ground, as if it were about to propel them into the water. He wasn't a bad swimmer, but there was the possibility that he would break his cochlear implant if he unexpectedly went into the water with it.

But he would ride it anyway if she wanted to.

"It looks so scary!" she exclaimed as she continued to push her way through the crowd, her hand latched onto his. But because she was in front of him and they moved through a tight group of people practically shouting over each other, he wasn't even sure she'd spoken.

By the time they'd gotten to the ride, there was a line that he wasn't particularly excited to be in. Since she stood in front of him, she turned around to strike up a conversation with him. He kept squinting his eyes at her, hopelessly trying to look at her mouth, but she talked a mile a minute and it was hard for him to keep up. She kept asking him questions, and his face turned red whenever he took too long to answer and she got upset by it.

Pouting, Anna Elizabeth decided to try another tactic.

She'd spent a lot of time trying to brush up on her sign language when she wasn't doing homework, getting attacked by her mother, or scratching, so she felt somewhat confident enough to hold a slightly coherent conversation.

The first full sentence she'd forced herself to learn was 'Can you hear me?' With what little confidence she had, she moved her hands in the appropriate formations. But the look of disgust he gave her halted her before she could even finish the sentence.

His face turned even redder and he looked away, scowling hard. Unsure of what else to do, he pushed his way out of the line to find a quiet place; he was starting to get a headache from the strain of trying to block out the ghost of every little thing just so he could pretend to hear her. He'd worked so hard to keep her from finding out about his hearing issues, and sure he'd slipped up a few times by more than likely saying the wrong thing in response to her, but he tried so hard.

For nothing.

He made it back to the car before she caught his arm. "Wait," she pleaded, raising her voice in the event that he wouldn't hear her.

"What?" he snapped, turning around to face her. "Gonna laugh at me now 'cause I can't hear?" He kicked one of the tires out of frustration. "This was stupid."

Anna Elizabeth ducked between him and the car, making direct eye contact with him. 'It wasn't stupid,' she signed to him. She still had the habit of mouthing the words as she signed, still not completely confident with it. 'I wouldn't laugh at you because you can't hear. I…wish you would have…told me sooner, but it doesn't change how I feel about you.' Her form was sloppy and she broke too many times during the sentence out of forgetting the words, but she hoped he would see that she was trying.

"I don't like talking," he announced, his voice low as he tried to make his words as clear as possible, "But I want to talk to you. I want to be normal for you."

She laughed softly and lightly punched him in the arm. "Ain't nothing about me normal," she told him, speaking loudly and slowly as she made sure he'd see her mouth. "I care a lot 'bout you, and I wanna keep being your first and last. I know a lil' bit of sign language, but I want to know more. I wanna be able to talk to you whenever, however."

He smiled at her and placed his hand on her cheek. Any worry he'd had about the relationship had melted away with her words, and he was so happy he could hear them. He would gladly teach her sign language if that meant they could grow closer. With the other girls he'd been with, they never noticed his hearing problem, not that they'd paid close enough attention to him, and he'd never been self-conscious about it. But this girl was something else, and he wanted to do whatever he could to impress her.

But it was exhilarating to find out that he had one less thing to worry about.

After giving her a deep, passionate kiss, they walked hand-in-hand back to the carnival to play games, ride death defying coasters and attractions, and even gorge on funnel cake.

* * *

_Keep me under cover in what could have been._

* * *

Darla and Mason gallivanted around the grocery store, causing a ruckus and making a bigger mess than normal patrons. They had a sword fight with the salami, had a pillow fight with oversized chip bags, and even bowled with soup cans and a grapefruit. They nearly got thrown out, but it was worth it since they were having fun.

When they got to the gluten-free aisle that no one hardly went to, he pulled her close and kissed her again. She thought it would be a quick kiss, but he kept her close when she tried to pull away and she just went along with it. She felt his hands moving near her waist, but she thought nothing of it. And the next thing she knew, she heard a zipper and felt something poke the button of her jeans.

She gasped and jumped back, looking at him with wide eyes. She looked down at his exposed, fully erect penis—which was larger than she thought it would be—and covered her mouth to stifle another gasp. "What the hell?" she hissed when she finally took her hand down.

"Come on," he urged, nodding his head downward. "No one's around."

"No!" she shouted loudly in offense. "No way!"

"You're such a fucking child!" he shouted, positioning his penis back into his pants and zipping them back up. He flipped her cart and she jumped at the loud crash, its contents spilling everywhere and rolling under shelves. He left her with the mess without another word.

In shock, she looked from the groceries strewn on the floor to the spot where he once stood. What the hell was his problem? First off, he was crazy if he thought she'd do anything  _remotely_  sexual in a supermarket,  _especially_  after she'd gotten pissed at him for trying to be sexual at the beach.

Second, who the hell acted like that? Why was sex  _so_  important to guys? Did they all get angry like that when they didn't get it? Maybe she should have just done whatever he wanted her to…

But what if they got caught? There was no doubt they'd be in the press again, and her mom would kill her if she saw another article about her daughter and her rambunctious mystery man.

He wouldn't have let that happen, though, would he?

He apparently knew what he was doing if he told her to do something, right? So maybe he had a plan in case they got caught…

She was  _always_  screwing up with him!

Sighing, she collected everything that fell out of the cart and put them back in after setting it upright. She would need to get new eggs; she had no doubt the majority would be broken. All of the bread—the wheat and the cruel-free sourdough—had been squished, so she'd need to replace that, too.

She decided to do that before going to find him. At the end of the day, she needed to do what her mom wanted…except for staying away from her boyfriend.

By the time she had gotten new bread and eggs, she found her boyfriend in the chip aisle…flirting with a woman in a sleek, black business suit. He spotted her out of the corner of his eye and made sure that Darla heard him tell the woman that he'd be in touch.

She grimaced and crossed her arms expectantly. "Who was that?" she asked as he stood in front of her.

"No one," he shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets.

Biting back questions she wanted to ask, she looked up to him apologetically. "I'm sorry for how I acted," she said. "I…I guess I overreacted."

"You did," he nodded, "But I forgive you." He held his arms out to her, waiting for her to come to him and return the hug. Slowly, she lowered her arms and moved to him, wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing the side of her face to his chest. And unbeknownst to her, he slipped a metal tube of natural-ingredient-and-animal-cruelty-free lipstick into her purse in the baby seat of the shopping cart.

"Walk me to my car after I pay for this?" she questioned, looking up at him with hopeful eyes and a nervous smile. Should she even be asking him for anything after making him angry like that?

"Sure," he agreed with a warm smile that soothed her slightly. He slipped an arm around her waist and walked beside her as she pushed the cart to the registers. After she'd greeted the cashier and loaded all of her groceries on the conveyer belt, he held up his hand to stop her as she reached for her bag. "I got it."

"Are you sure?" she gaped, her grey eyes alight with confusion.

He gave her a soft smile as he pulled his wallet from his back pocket. "Yeah," he answered quietly before turning back to the cashier and handing over his credit card.

Now she felt worse.

First she'd pissed him off  _again_  by not doing sexy, adult things, and now he was paying for her absurdly expensive groceries. She should have put up more of a fight to pay for it, but she made sure to grab all of the grocery bags and move them to the cart while he finished paying for everything.

"Thanks," she breathed as he shoved the receipt and his wallet back into his pocket.

He shrugged again. "Anything for my girl," he told her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

As she wheeled the basket out of the store, he kept his eyes on her purse in wait. The metal of the lipstick holder would definitely sound the alarm once she went through it. All he had to do was wait.

The ear-splitting beeping of the shoplifting alarm caused Darla to jump in her boyfriend's arms and she looked around in worry.

"Ma'am," the manager—a tall woman with greying brown hair and a mustache that could be seen from space—called to her. "I need you to step back inside and show me what's in your bags."

Wordlessly, Darla rolled her shopping basket back inside and over to the manager's cubicle at the end of the row of cash registers. "I don't know what could have set it off," she explained honestly. "I double checked to make sure I got everything."

Not buying her story, the manager scowled. "Can I see your receipt please?" she asked in a husky voice.

"I've got it," Mason announced, pulling the crumpled paper from his pocket. He handed it over to her and she scanned it with piercing green eyes before rummaging through Darla's grocery bags.

After sifting through everything and matching it all with the contents of the receipt, she grimaced and eyed Darla's purse. "I need to check your bag," she announced without even bothering to look up at the frightened girl. She picked it up out of the baby seat and dumped its contents out onto her desk. Scanning everything over, her scowl deepened.

Then, she spotted the lipstick.

The bright pink canister held a white seal over the twistable top that was still intact. She held it up, glaring at the young girl. "I guess you didn't look hard enough," she spat.

"I don't know how that got there," Darla cried, her eyes as wide as the moon. "I didn't even go down the makeup aisle."

"This is just a misunderstanding," Mason intercepted, coming to her rescue. "We were being clumsy earlier and knocked over her cart. It must have been on the floor when we were picking everything up and she must have put it in her purse without realizing it. It's an honest mistake, ma'am. To make up for the commotion we've caused, I'll gladly pay for it right now."

"It's twenty dollars," Darla hissed, snapping her head to him in surprise. "No one I know spends that much on lipstick."

"It's fine," he waved off in a normal tone of voice as he pulled his wallet out once more. He took out his credit card and handed it to the manager with a dashing grin, exposing perfectly white teeth. "I apologize for the disturbance."

The older woman's face softened as she took his card. She turned around to her personal register after giving a nasty girl to the dumbfounded West-Oliver girl. The card and lipstick were given back to Mason without another word, and the young couple exited the store.

"Thanks for that," Darla mumbled once they were at her car. "I feel really bad about what happened; I really don't know how it got in there."

"It's okay," he assured her as he lifted the trunk and started loading in groceries. "I told you I'd take care of you. I know you're younger than me and we're gonna go about things differently, but I care a lot about you; I'll do whatever I have to in order to make you safe. I'd pay whatever I had to if you needed it."

She smiled broadly up at him and took his hand. "You're too sweet," she breathed. She wrapped her other hand around the nape of his neck and leaned up on her toes to kiss him again. And he smiled into the kiss, not because he was happy to be with her, but because he'd earned her trust.

He'd go a long way with that.

* * *

  _Keep me under cover in what could have been._

* * *

An 8-bit rendition of her wedding song woke Jade from a long overdue nap.

Grumbling, she shot up and bed and snatched her phone from the bedside table.

" _What_ ," she snarled without looking at the caller ID before hitting answer.

"Jade, it's Carol," her rep announced. "We've got a problem."

"Another one?" she groaned, falling back onto her bed, her head bouncing slightly. "What is it now?"

"Check TMZ," Carol advised. "And whatever you do, don't kill her." She hung up without a mention of farewell.

Grinding her teeth as she held her phone inches from her face, Jade scrolled through the internet until she landed on the popular celebrity news website. And lo and behold, her daughter had made another headline. This time, it was for shoplifting.

Furious, she scrolled through the article, her eyes darting from one end of her phone to the other as she read. Darla had been caught red handed trying to steal twenty dollars' worth of lipstick. A snappy comment was made about her boyfriend being her 'knight in shining armor,' and segued into someone spotting Jensen out in Marina del Rey with a girl whose face she couldn't get a good look at.

"Beck!" she screeched, jumping out of bed. At least  _one_  of her children wasn't in the tabloids. She stormed out of her room, clomping downstairs in nothing more than one of his old shirts and her underwear.

"In the kitchen!" he called back to her over running water.

"Look at what your daughter did," she growled, tapping him roughly on the shoulder and holding the phone up to his face.

"Can you scroll up, please?" he asked nonchalantly as he stared at the screen. "All I'm seeing is Jen with a girl."

Groaning, Jade slid her thumb up on the screen, sending it back to the top of the page. She waited for a moment while her husband read about Darla's latest scandal.

"What are we going to do about this?" she asked in a demanding tone, throwing her phone onto the counter. "I'm tired of her being so reckless. We're gonna have to put a shock collar on her just to make sure she doesn't see that idiot anymore!"

"Babe," Beck breathed, picking his hands up out of the soapy water and drying them off. He turned around to wrap his arms around her waist and plant a small kiss on her forehead. "Just calm down a little and wait until she gets home. There are two sides to every story; remember when they said you and Chloe Grace Moretz allegedly got into a fight on set?"

"The little grunch started it," she grumbled, looking away from him with crossed arms and a highly displeased demeanor.

"But they said you picked the fight," he reminded, turning her head so she'd meet his eyes. "The tabloids only report the first thing they hear, even if it isn't true. Let's hear her side of things and go from there."

His wife rolled her eyes. "Fine," she spat. "But you talk to her first."

They both turned toward the front door at the sound of it unlocking and he smiled at the challenge. "Deal," he breathed, pulling away from her and going to meet his daughter.

Darla stopped in her tracks upon seeing her parents exit the kitchen, nearly dropping her groceries at her mom's menacing glare. "Before you guys say anything," she started hastily, "It was all an accident. I didn't even plan on meeting Mason there, but it just happened. I swear I would never steal anything."

"This wouldn't have happened if you stayed away from him like I  _told_  you to!" Jade screamed.

"I wasn't even trying to meet up with him!" her daughter cried in defense. "You have my phone, remember? I had no way of telling him where I was; it was just a coincidence!"

"Coincidence or not," the older West-Oliver woman continued on, "You should have steered clear of him the moment you saw him. What part of 'I don't want you seeing him anymore' do you not understand?! I'd like to go back to not having my children in the tabloids."

"Well then maybe you shouldn't have had children!" Darla yelled, throwing the grocery bags onto the couch and running up the stairs.

"You're grounded for another week!" her mother shouted as she slammed her bedroom door.

Amongst the commotion, Cat appeared at the top of the stairs. "What's going on?" she asked in her light voice as Jade stormed back into the kitchen."

"Paparazzi took pictures of Darla and claimed she was shoplifting with her boyfriend," Beck explained quickly. "Can you go talk to her while I try to get a hold on my wife?"

"Go screw yourself!" came his wife's shrill voice, along with a sopping wet spoon that he so narrowly avoided.

With a small squeak, Cat turned around and made her way to Darla's room.

Taking in a deep breath, Beck braved the kitchen, preparing himself for the worst.

"I'm so tired of this!" his wife exclaimed as she lodged a knife in the wall with a sharp throw. She turned to her husband with rage clouding her blue-green eyes. "I'm doing so much to make sure she doesn't go through what I did; I'm doing my damnedest to give her the life I never had. And for what?! This stupid boy who's nothing but trouble?!"

"Maybe it's time we tell the twins about their uncle," he suggested calmly, standing his ground a safe few feet away from her. "If they knew, they'd probably be more careful when we're not around."

"But what if Jen starts asking question about who his dad is?" she whispered, worry completely evacuating her anger.

Sensing the danger to be over, he stepped forward and took her into his arms. "He won't," he assured her, "And neither will Darla; they've probably never even heard of superfecundation."

"But what if they start searching and come across it?" she persisted, her eyes clouding with terror. "I don't want them to find out they have to different dads if that's even the case; I  _don't_  want my oldest son knowing that he could be the product of rape." She pulled away from him and turned to the sink to finish the dishes. "We're  _not_ telling them about Liam, and that's that."

* * *

  _Keep me under cover in what could have been._

* * *

**Meanwhile.**

Slightly perturbed by the commotion downstairs, Cat knocked on her niece's door. "Rocky?" she called softly. "Can I come in? Your mommy and daddy are downstairs."

There was a moment of silence before Darla's door clanked loudly as she unlocked it. She pulled it open just enough for her aunt to come inside and shut it once more, locking it back. She turned around and crossed her arm, mimicking her mother's dark stature.

"Beck told me what happened a little bit," the redhead announced. "But what really happened? And who's your boyfriend?" She plopped down on Darla's bed with a loud sigh. "No one tells me anything anymore."

Pouting, Darla joined her aunt on her bed. "His name is Mason," she told her. "I met him a few weeks ago before school and I think he's really nice, but Mom doesn't like him because we're in the headlines. But that's not my fault that those stupid paparazzi people follow me around!"

"I know it's not," her aunt nodded in agreement, "But you need to keep that in mind and be careful what you do. I know it's really bad, but whatever you and your brothers do goes back to your parents, and it can look pretty bad for them; if it gets so bad, no one will want to work with them anymore."

"I didn't ask to be rich," she huffed, falling back onto her bed and glaring at the ceiling.

"I know you didn't," her aunt breathed, placing a reassuring hand on her knee, "But your mommy tried really hard to make all the money she did so you, Jensen, and Kendall wouldn't have to worry about money. She had a really bad childhood; she didn't have a lot of money, and she had to stay with me and my mommy sometimes because her parents couldn't pay bills sometimes. She worries about you the most, though; a lot of her problems came from mean boys."

"But I thought Dad was her first boyfriend," she scrutinized, sitting up.

Cat's eyes widened slightly for a brief moment before going back to their normally large size and she beamed radiantly. "Guess what," she breathed, changing the subject.

"What?" the West-Oliver girl questioned, her face falling at the flippant woman before her.

"I'm pregnant!" she exclaimed in an excited whisper. She grabbed her niece's hand and placed it on her stomach above her blue tank top. "You're gonna have a new baby cousin in a few months!"

"That's great!" Darla congratulated with genuine excitement. She guessed that was the case yesterday, but it was still amazing to hear it out loud.

"I was going to tell everyone yesterday at the party," Cat began sadly, "But then Daniel got mad and it didn't feel like the right time anymore."

Her niece looked down at the hand being held skeptically. "What…what happened with Mrs. Kerrigan and that guy that crashed?"

Cat let go of Darla's hand and took in a deep breath through her nose. "They used to date in high school," she breathed. "She dated Daniel before that, though, and somehow they wound up back together. They got married when you, Tony, and Jensen were two, and they've been through a lot; not as much as your mommy and daddy, though." She smiled as she lightly pinched the younger girl's cheek.

Darla smiled and played along, but something didn't sit right with her. How long had Tori dated that guy before she got married? They couldn't have dated very long if Tony was two when they got married; she calculated it, and her parents were only sophomores when they became parents. But Tori seemed like she'd dated that guy longer than maybe a year and a half.

Had they been dating while she was pregnant? Did he even know she was pregnant, or did she break up with him before then?

She had so many questions about her friend's parents, and now she was starting to worry about her own.

Her aunt had basically said that there was someone else in her mom's life other than her dad. What if she and Jensen weren't even twins? What if something really bad happened and they just covered it up by saying they were fraternal twins? What if he'd been born a year or something before her? She'd always wondered why he looked so different from her, but she'd let it die down.

And now, she wanted to know.

* * *

  _Keep me under cover in what could have been._

* * *

Etta Mae had raised her daughter Christiane—now formally known as Laura Jean Ragland for some unknown reason—on Hollywood gossip from the day she learned how to speak. That being said, Laura made sure to always be caught up with the latest news, no matter what time of day; sometimes she would even wake herself up in the middle of the night to see what the buzz was about. And with the ever increasing advancement of smartphones, she found it wondrously simple to know everything there was about Hollywood's stars and starlets.

So naturally, she spotted the article about Jensen West-Oliver spending time at a carnival near the beach with a girl who had a dress and height eerily similar to that of her daughter's.

She waited damn near an hour for that girl to come home, and she hadn't left her spot on the couch the second her eyes left her phone. Her rage ever increasing, she drummed her nails on the arms of the couch. It was bad enough that the little bitch skipped out on meeting her daddy and didn't make their family whole, but she did it so she could be with a  _boy_?

This was not good.

In her good time with her boyfriend, Anna Elizabeth completely forgotten she'd snuck out of the house. So instead of scaling the side to go back to her room, she went straight for the front door when Jensen dropped her off. And as she opened the door, she froze in her tracks when her eyes fell on her infuriated mother in the living room.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" Laura shouted, shooting up from the couch. She clamored over to her daughter and yanked her into the house, slamming the door loudly behind her. "Get your ass in this house right now!" She turned the tiny girl to face her and gave her the hardest slap she'd ever dished out. "Why do you always have to ruin everything for me?" She held her phone with the tiny article about Jensen up to her now crying daughter's face. "What do you think your daddy's gonna say if he sees you out with some stupid little boy?"

"I don't even care about him!" the tiny girl shrieked, tears running down her face. She stepped back. "We were just fine without him! Why do we need him?" The world moved in slow motion as her mother's fist crashed into her cheek, sending her to the floor.

"You watch your damn mouth, you ungrateful little bitch!" she shouted. "It doesn't matter why we need him! We have to be a family. Just you, me, and him. You best not see that shitty boy again or I swear ta God Almighty and I'll kill the both a ya! I've worked so hard to get where I am, ta be with the man I love, and I ain't gone let you take that away just 'cause you found some jackass that ain't gone give a flying fuck about you once he screws you!"

"But I love him, Mama," Anna Elizabeth whispered, holding her throbbing cheek. "And I loved Paul, too. Why can't I be happy?"

Suddenly, Laura's face fell to a blank state and she straightened her posture. Then, disgusted eyes fell on her daughter. "Your daddy's going out of town for a while," she announced flatly. "He's gonna call me when he gets back, and then you're going to see him." She walked over to the cowering girl before her and snatched the black clutch beside her where she assumed the girl's phone would be. "You'll get your phone back when you see your daddy." She turned on her heels to head toward the stairs.

"And remember what I said about that boy," she called monotonously over her shoulder. "I'll kill you both."


	4. Oceandust

* * *

  _“There’s no more wind to be found in the sails. Hands full of fallen stars and comet tails, rivers of sand unentwined through my hands, to know what they've seen, well, my burden’s all pale. There’s no respite to be found in the waves; each rise and retreat will scrub the blood away.” – Hands Like Houses_

* * *

 

Laura Jean Ragland was beginning to rue the day she ever had a daughter.

She couldn't understand how her own flesh and blood could be so cruel as to not want to see their mother happy. For nearly seventeen years, she'd done nothing but give and give for that girl, only for the spoiled wretch to throw it all away for the son of the awful woman that attempted to send her life to hell.

All she ever wanted was a family, so why couldn't her daughter see that? She needed Liam in her life; that's what love was, not whatever Anna Elizabeth thought she had with this boy.

As she went to bed that night, a dastardly thought clouded her mind before sending her peacefully to sleep: Jensen was Liam's nephew, meaning he was also Anna Elizabeth's cousin. Once that delectable little tidbit surfaced, her brat of a daughter would be so crushed that she'd never want to see him again. Then she'd have no more excuses for putting off meeting her father.

They'd be a family again.

* * *

_I don't want to pretend that I'm stronger for it all._

* * *

Tony groaned loudly, falling off the bed as soon as he rolled onto his side. He grunted in annoyance, slowly climbing to his feet. As he stretched his back that had grown stiff from the small position he'd taken in order to fit onto the bed, he glared at his brother sleeping soundly and sprawled over the full-sized mattress. In the mornings, he pretty much hated everything, and now he hated that Hector found it so easy to sleep wherever he laid down.

He hated that his parents were getting a divorce, that they couldn't work out whatever issues they had. His mom pointed out that they had trust issues, so why didn't they just go to counseling? They were being terrible parents, and it wasn't fair.

He hated how he had to be the supportive older brother; it was his responsibility to make sure Hector was okay, even though he was hurting, too. He had to be strong for his little brother, to give him more space on the bed, to stay by his side pretty much all the time.

For a whole month now, they'd been living with their maternal grandparents, and he was worn out. They'd both been put up in their aunt's old bedroom since their mom's old room had been converted into a nursery for their three-year-old uncle, Miguel. They also had to share the room with boxes and whatever else their grandparents stuffed in there from a renovation put on hold.

Hector still hardly spoke, and his brother, grandparents, and Erica were the only ones there when he did. He'd been so upset about his parents' fighting that he'd completely forgotten about his movie and the steadily approaching deadline. And other than bathing and eating, he hardly did anything at all. He'd failed two math quizzes and was on the verge of being put in remedial English.

Tony continued to let his anger consume him, and he hardly slept anymore. He'd grown noticeably pale, and the bags beneath his eyes grew noticeably darker. He could only go a few hours without arguing with someone, and he'd been suspended twice. His grandparents took it upon themselves not to tell Tori or Danny, but the strain of having two teenage boys began to wear them down.

"Get up and take your shower," the older Kerrigan boy demanded, shoving the bed roughly with his foot. The mattress nudged a stack of boxes that fell beside his brother with a loud commotion, startling them both. Disoriented, Hector shot up in the bed, halfway ready to attack.

"Please be careful in there!" their _abuelita_ called up to them.

"Sorry!" Tony called back. He looked back to his brother with a scowl. "Hurry up and shower."

"Can't we just stay home?" Hector asked as he plopped back down on the bed and pulled the comforter over his head.

"You missed two days last week," his brother reminded him. "Principal Helen said, ‘you miss any more and your parents will be notified.' The last thing Mom and Dad need is for your delinquent ass to force them into the principal's office."

"Talk to me when you aren't mean," Hector grumbled, curling into a ball beneath the blanket.

Sighing loudly in annoyance, Tony rolled his eyes and made his way to the bathroom. Most mornings, he didn't even get a shower because his brother took so long. At least now he'd be able to get some warm water. And if Hector didn't have time for breakfast, he'd grab some toast and force it down his brother's throat.

At seven in the morning, Miguel was already wide awake, running up and down the hallway despite his dad's warning. Tony had to practically pull him out of the toilet—putting an end to the little boy's submarine adventures—and carry the soaking wet child out of the bathroom before he could take his shower in peace. Well, as much peace as anyone could have with a three-year-old banging on the bathroom door and spouting Spanish at the top of his lungs.

He could honestly say he was thankful for the distraction, though; otherwise, he would have continued to ruminate in the disaster that was quickly becoming his life.

As soon as Tony turned off the water, Miguel had taken up an interest in something downstairs and begged his mom to take him there. And for the briefest moment, he had peace while drying off.

Wrapping the towel around his waist, he almost made it back to his aunt's room when the doorbell rang. He moved toward the top of the stairs out of curiosity but remained out of sight.

"I'll get it!" Holly Vega called, jogging up to the door. Her husband was down in the basement with Miguel, and she'd been finishing up breakfast. She smiled broadly upon seeing her youngest daughter. "Tori," she breathed happily, pulling her daughter into a hug. "What a surprise!"

"Hi, Mom," she greeted back less enthusiastically as she returned the hug. When they broke, she looked around, surveying the renovations. The grand piano no longer sat near the foot of the stairs and had been replaced with baby exercise machines for her little brother. His toys were scattered across the living room floor, reminding her of when her eldest was only two. She smiled at how little her childhood home had changed despite the plans for expansion and redecorating.

She looked back to her car and waved at Andre in the passenger's seat before stepping inside the house and closing the door. "I came to get my boys," she announced firmly. "I can't stand being without them like this, and I think it would be better if they stayed with me in Andre's suite; it's big enough for the four of us."

Upstairs, Tony crossed his arms, despising the thought of living under the same roof with the man that tore apart his parents' marriage. Who did he think he was, anyway? Wow, he'd made a bunch of money. Big deal. That gave him no right to steal Tori away. Tony knew he and Hector would have to live with them eventually—especially since it seemed like their dad didn't even want custody of them—but why couldn't they wait to uproot the boys after they'd gotten a house?

Crossing her arms, Holly grimaced. "Suite or not," she began seriously, glaring at her daughter for poor decision making, "A hotel is no place to raise two teenage boys. They need a real home, no matter how small or cramped it is."

"And we're working on one," Tori assured her mother with pleading eyes. "We'd only be in the hotel for a little while. We might have a house in Beverly Hills, close to our friends. Tony would be closer to Jade's son, and I know he'd really like that. I can't let you watch over them and my baby brother; there's nowhere near enough room here for that."

"We've been making it work for the past month," she stated sternly. "There's always room for family in this house. Even if it's cramped, I'm not letting my _nietos_ stay in an empty house while their own father hides away in his condo in Venice."

"And I'm so grateful that you and Dad have taken care of them," Tori started hurriedly, "But they need to be with their mother."

Mrs. Vega bit her lip, forcing a moment of silence. She didn't want her grandchildren caught in the drama of a failing marriage but at the end of the day, she couldn't keep her daughter from taking them wherever she went. "Are you _sure_ this is what you want?" she questioned uneasily. "To be with Andre, despite everything you've been through with your husband? Your father and I had our ups and downs, too, sweetheart, but we always managed to work them out."

"You don't even _like_ Danny," Tori snarled maliciously. Her tone further angered her eldest son as he stood clenching his fists out of sight.

"But I _love_ my grandsons," her mother pointed out in a slightly harsh tone. "Divorce is never easy on _any_ child and that's part of the reason your father and I have been together for so long. If we couldn't work out our differences, we both decided that we would have stayed together until you and Trina were done with college. We would have tried to make it work even if we didn't love each other anymore, but that never happened. We never gave up on each other."

"And what if you hated each other?" the younger Latina challenged. "What if you couldn't bear the _sight_ of each other? What if every word they said made your skin crawl? I can't be with him anymore, Mom. I'd rather my boys go through the divorce than see us constantly fighting."

Her mother opened her mouth to speak when the deafening smash of glass breaking startled them both.

 _"…murder you_!" they heard Danny's enraged voice scream.

Tori ran to the door, ripping it open to find her husband holding Andre against the side of her car with one hand as he repeatedly punched him with the other. Broken glass from the passenger's window surrounded them, as well as blood from his hand and Andre's nose.

"Danny!" she shrieked, running up to him and grabbing him by the bicep in the attempt to halt his blows. "Danny, stop!"

"David!" Holly called, running back into the house.

His fury consuming him, he knocked his wife to the ground. She hissed in pain as her hands slammed down on the glass on the ground. "Who the fuck do you think you are?!" he shouted as he continued to attack the man who put up little resistance—other than shielding his face. "First you steal my wife, and now you try to steal my kids?!"

Being quiet, former police Chief David Vega snuck out of the house and bombarded the thirty-four-year-old, tackling him to the ground. Even in retirement, he was still one of the best. He pinned his son-in-law to the ground, firmly holding his hands behind his back. As he spouted off about how his own wife had called the police and how he'd be going to jail for destruction of property and assault, Holly ran upstairs, clinging to her son.

"Go back to your room," she urged her eldest grandson as she bounded up the steps.

"What's going on?" Tony asked worriedly, clinging to the towel around his waist. "Was that Dad?"

"Your _abuelito_ is taking care of it," she told him, avoiding the question as she shooed him back into Trina's old room. "Please get ready for school and wake your brother up. I'll explain everything later."

Wordlessly and begrudgingly curious, he followed orders and closed the door.

* * *

  _I don't want to pretend that I'm stronger for it all._

* * *

Supposedly, Liam West was going up to Bakersfield for yet another surgery and more physical therapy that would finally allow him to walk without a cane. After that, he would go into training for a management position at Wahlberg's, the superstore on the edge of Santa Monica.

According to Laura, he'd be home the day before Thanksgiving which was only two days away.

Needless to say, Anna Elizabeth still wasn't ready to meet her estranged father. Could he even be considered estranged? Did she ever live with him? Did he ever marry her mom?

Regardless, she'd rather devote all of her time to school, art, and her boyfriend.

The month without her cell phone had been hell. She wanted more than anything to stay up late texting Jensen just so he'd be the last thing she thought about when she went to sleep. Every morning, she woke up and immediately went to check her phone for a text from him, only to be reminded that she no longer had it.

After her mother's death threat, she decided she would only spend time with him during school hours. Occasionally, they'd skip class together just to be with each other. They'd sneak off to empty classrooms and just talk for hours on end. She'd gotten good at forging her mother's signature, and he'd convinced his sister to do the same for him so they were technically ‘excused' from classes. Most days they worked on her sign language, but he told her he'd really like it if she spoke while she signed because there were the beautiful moments where he would actually be able to hear her voice and he loved every second of it.

She wasn't allowed to do any extracurricular activities since her mother couldn't be there to monitor how close she got to her boyfriend, so Hector's movie kept getting put off; however, it didn't exactly help that Darla was still grounded and Tyler broke his nose during a skateboarding incident.

Hector hardly brought up the movie anyway with his parents' failing marriage keeping him perpetually distracted. Erica kept herself preoccupied with Tyler, ‘nursing him back to health.'

In the back of her mind, Anna Elizabeth knew she would have to stop seeing Jensen but she couldn't bring herself to let him go just yet. Even when she turned eighteen, her mother would more than likely keep the cast iron grip on her and there still wouldn't be anything she could do about it. The day after her mother hit her, Darla questioned her about the busted lip. Anna Elizabeth tried her hardest to lie about it, but her perceptive friend saw through it and suggested she consider getting emancipated…if her mom were hitting her.

The thought seemed exciting, but she wasn't sure she'd be able to go through with it.

Darla and Anna Elizabeth took quickly to each other, mainly because the tinier raven-haired girl was dating her brother, and they became as thick as thieves. When Anna Elizabeth wasn't spending as much time as she could with her new beau, she was gossiping and passing notes to her new best friend during the classes they shared.

Once free of her brutish stepfather and monstrous half-brother—and the small affair she'd had in college—Jade had gotten bad at hiding things. And because she lost her touch, Darla found her phone in a matter of days. Kendall caught her a week after it had been taken away, so she promised she'd do all of his chores for the next two months if he kept his mouth shut. Then she texted Mason practically nonstop at school and as frequently as possible while at home.

One day at lunch, he'd come to apologize for calling her a child in the grocery store and brought her two things: a brand new skateboard that cost a _substantial_ amount of money, and a golden bracelet with the day of their first date engraved on the inside.

He continued to act weird, getting angry over the littlest things, but she passed it off as him caring about her. Avoiding the press, they stayed on school property, hiding out in the library stacks that no one ever looked through.

After nearly a month of cavorting about, Mason brought up sex and how he very much wanted it with her. Desperate to get out of the dangerous territory, she told him she needed to work on a project and told him to leave the school, dashing off before he could get a word in edgewise.

She hadn't spoken to him in three days.

He continued to text her nonstop, spewing apologies left and right, begging for her to speak to him again. Eventually, she knew she would have to if she wanted to maintain the relationship.

While everyone else shot up and rushed out the door when the bell rang, she simply sat in her seat, staring blankly at the wall of her third period Script Writing class. She jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Her face relaxed when she saw her best friend's worried expression.

"Are you okay?" the tiny girl asked wispily. At that moment, Darla could have sworn she heard a hint of her aunt in her voice and it threw her off.

"Y-yeah," she lied. "I just have a lot on my mind."

Anna Elizabeth pulled up a chair by her friend. "Anything you want to talk about?" she prodded.

Darla sighed and looked away. "My boyfriend wants to get a hotel and spend the weekend with me when my parents go out of town."

Anna Elizabeth's face lit up. "That sounds fun!" she exclaimed airily. Her face fell when she realized what the other girl was getting at. "If you're nervous," she began quietly, putting her hand on her friend's, "You don't have to go."

"I know," she agreed, keeping her eyes on her desk. "I want to go, but…it's my first time."

Anna Elizabeth smiled reminiscently and leaned up to rest her forehead on Darla's shoulder. "The first time is always a little scary," she breathed. "Everyone says it hurts, but it's only for a little while if you're with the right person." She looked up at the other girl and gently pulled her face to look into her timid grey eyes. "You have to be at least ninety-percent sure you want to be with him, Darla. Otherwise, you'll regret it."

"Did you?" she asked without hesitation.

The tiny girl smiled sadly.  "I loved him," she confessed. "Part of me always will, but we've both moved on. The only thing I regret is letting my mother take me away from him, but I wouldn't give up meeting an amazing guy like Jensen just so I could stay with him."

The West-Oliver girl sighed and pressed her forehead to Anna Elizabeth's. "You're a really good friend," she told her.

"I try," the little Ragland joked. She locked her arm with Darla's and pulled her out of her seat. "Come on. We have a lunch date."

Darla smiled, her unease dissipating. She was glad she had Anna Elizabeth to talk to. She went to great lengths to avoid Erica at all costs since they had polar opposite personalities and values and she couldn't talk to any of her guy friends about insecurities with her boyfriend.

They'd all laugh at her for being such a girl.

As for being ninety-percent sure about if she wanting to be with Mason, she felt at about eighty. She felt obligated to sleep with him since he was getting testy about it and if she didn't sleep with him soon, she worried he'd get tired of her and leave her. She wanted more than anything for her first relationship not to fail over something stupid and she was beginning to feel like she'd be okay if he ever wanted to marry her.  Hopefully, spending time with him would boost her up that extra ten percent.

By the time the girls got out to the Asphalt Café, their other friends were already seated and beginning to tear apart their lunches.

"So when are we gonna meet your troublemaking boyfriend?" Connor quipped as he shoved nearly half a burrito in his mouth. Tyler started to snicker, but his nose started hurting and he cried out slightly. Much to his disdain, Erica wrapped her arms around him, quietly assuring him it would be okay before asking him if he wanted the ice pack.

Darla rolled her eyes as she took one of the empty seats at the other side of the table. "Funny," she spat.

"Maybe it would be a good thing if we met him," her petite friend offered as she took the spot by her boyfriend. Jensen hurriedly welcomed her by wrapping an arm around her waist and kissing her bare shoulder. Her face lit up with a bright idea and she grinned excitedly. She raised her hands to begin signing, that way he'd know what she said since she faced her friend. "We should do a double date!"

"What about a triple date?" Erica added, smiling as she locked her arm with Tyler's. He looked to her in shock for a brief moment and sighed, knowing he wouldn't be able to get out of it since she hadn't left him alone after he broke his nose.

"I don't know," Darla breathed nervously. "I don't think he'd be interested."

"Whoever you're dating needs to make a good impression with your friends," Anna Elizabeth pointed out, signing as she spoke. Jensen kept his eyes locked on her hands, slightly smirking with pride at how quickly she was learning what he taught her. "You been dating for two months and everything we know about him we learned from them little news things. If he won't hang out with us, then you shouldn't hang out with him."

Darla groaned loudly and put her head down on the table. " _Fin_ e," she mumbled into the metal. "I'll ask him."

"Tonight," Erica piped up enthusiastically.

" _Tonight_?!" the older girl repeated incredulously, her head shooting up. "That's a little soon."

Thanks to his girlfriend taking the liberty of signing everything everyone said, Jensen took it upon himself to pickpocket his sister and take her phone. While she and Erica went back and forth over the date of the outing, he unlocked her phone—though she didn't know he knew her passcode—and texted away to her boyfriend, trying his best to mimic her texting style. He let the girls go on for a few more minutes when the phone vibrated in his hand.

"He said tonight is fine," he announced, halting both girls in mid-sentence as they snapped to look at him. He looked up at his sister with a devilish grin and handed the phone back, planting a kiss on Anna Elizabeth's neck as he leaned over her.

"Have fun," Jordan growled, collecting his lunch and getting up from the table, walking away without another word.

Darla looked after him in confusion and opened her mouth to call out to him when Tony and Hector staggered up to the table. "Did you guys just get here?" she asked, completely forgetting about her friend.

"We've been here," he announced curtly, taking Jordan's spot. His brother took the seat between Erica and Jensen. With haste, Tony waved his hand in front of his best friend's face to pull him away from his newfound infatuation. "Can I stay with you for a while?" he asked while signing.

"What's up?" his friend returned, keeping his arms around his girlfriend.

"More parent stuff," the older Kerrigan explained lazily. "Can't stay with my grandparents anymore."

Jensen shrugged. "I don't see why not," he said. "My parents wouldn't mind you taking a guest room."

And for the first time in a month, Tony Kerrigan smiled.

* * *

  _I don't want to pretend that I'm stronger for it all._

* * *

_"Hello?" Laura called after three rings._

"Hi, Mama," Anna Elizabeth returned sweetly.

_"Who's phone are you calling me from?" her mother spat, ignoring formalities._

"The principal's," the tiny girl answered, trying to keep up her sugary tone. She could feel Principal Helen's eyes boring into her back, and it suddenly made her arms start itching. Fighting off the urge to scratch, she twirled a lock of curly black hair in the pointer finger of her free hand.

 _"What the_ hell _did you do?" Laura seethed. "I better not hafta come down there an' get you."_

"No, Mama," she denied, straining to keep up her calm façade for the principal. "I was just calling to ask if it would be okay if I got a ride home from one of my friends. I have a project for one of my art classes that I want to go ahead and finish since both o' us are gonna be real busy when Daddy gets back."

_"And why can't you finish it at home?" her mother spat, growing more impatient by the second._

"There's lotsa quiet places here at school," Anna Elizabeth explained. "It'll be easier for me to finish it here, and then you ain't gotta help me carry it back to school; I can just leave it in the art room when I'm done."

For a moment, there was silence and the petite teen worried what would happen next. Though she was a lot of things, Laura Jean Ragland was never quiet…unless she was about to snap.

 _"How long will you be there?" she asked softly, surprising her daughter._ The call had been a long shot, and she didn't even think it would work.

"Mrs. McKenzie says I can stay as late as I want as long as I lock up the room," her daughter announced. "I think I'll be done by ten."

_"Ten tonight?" Laura shouted incredulously, causing the tiny girl to flinch. "What the hell kinda fool do you think I am, Anna Elizabeth Nicole? You ain't stayin' there that late. And who's gone be staying up at that school with you until then to take you home? You best remember what I said about that boy."_

"I need to finish my project," the now shaking girl pressed on. "My friend Erica said she'd take me home; she's in my class with me and has to finish her project, too."

Again, Laura was silent. Anna Elizabeth clenched her eyes and forced herself to stand still, thankful that the principal couldn't see her face. She hated asking her mom for anything, and she was practically on the verge of tears. She hated being yelled at, too, and the damn itching had spread to her stomach. She felt she would go insane if her mother didn't hurry up and say something.

_"Be home before eleven," her mother finally ordered. "I'll be waiting up and I want that girl to come to the door with you. You understand?"_

"Yes, Mama," the small-statured teen answered meekly. "I'll be home before eleven."

Then, Laura hung up without even so much as a goodbye.

Anna Elizabeth sighed quietly, regaining her composure before turning back to her principal. "Thank you so much for letting me use the phone, Principal Helen," she thanked as she placed it back on the receiver.

As she turned to leave, the burly woman cleared her throat and stood. "Anna Elizabeth," she called, causing the teen to stop in her tracks.

The raven haired girl turned around, masking her terror with confusion. "Yes, ma'am?"

The stocky woman gestured to one of the chairs in front of her desk. "Have a seat, please," she ordered, her voice hinting at a sense of urgency. "I want to talk to you about what just happened."

Her feet gliding across the carpet, Anna Elizabeth lowered her head and took one of the free seats, clinging to herself nervously. She just wanted to go back to lunch…

"Is everything with your home life alright?" Helen inquired after taking her seat.

"Yes, ma'am," Anna Elizabeth answered quietly, not looking up. "Why do you ask?"

"You seemed frightened when you were talking to your mother," the older woman pointed out.

"Mama just gets a little upset sometimes," she announced, raising her head to meet her principal's eyes. "I don't like being yelled at, but she yells sometimes. She doesn't hit me or nothin'."

Principal Helen narrowed her eyes slightly. "Are you eating regularly?" she questioned. "You look pale and a little on the thin side."

"I've been busy with school," Anna Elizabeth lied with a small smile. "Sometimes I just forget to eat. I'm fine, though, and everything at home is fine."

The principal frowned, locking her fingers together on top of her desk as she leaned forward, intimidating the small girl before her. "I've seen a lot of instances of child abuse and neglect," she announced quietly, as if someone were listening. "It isn’t something to be taken lightly. I want you to know that I'm here to help you in school and out. I may not see all of my students every day, but I care about each and every one of you. Do you see what I'm saying?"

Anna Elizabeth gave a curt nod. "Yes, Principal Helen," she breathed, plastering on her biggest smile possible. "But I assure you that my mama loves me and would never do anythin' to hurt me." Her eyes darted to the clock behind the domineering woman. "Lunch is almost over. May I go, please?"

Pursing her lips in deliberation, Helen gave her pupil a skeptical stare. Something still seemed off about the situation, but all she could do was report it in on suspicion if Anna Elizabeth didn't want to come forward. Something about the way the girl sat, as if trying up to take up as little space as possible, suggested that everything wasn't as good at home as she claimed.

"Don't be late," she agreed, waving her hand for the little girl to go.

When the door to her office closed, she reached for her phone and dialed the police.

* * *

  _I don't want to pretend that I'm stronger for it all._

* * *

 "What took so long?" Jensen whispered as his girlfriend joined him in their study hall. Technically, it was only supposed to be Anna Elizabeth's study hall, but he'd convinced a few teachers to switch some of his classes around so that he could be with her.

"Principal Helen just wanted to talk to me," she whispered back once she put her stuff down, signing every word and not meeting his eyes. She wanted to tell him, but part of her wished she would have noticed on his own. Forcing herself to think about tonight, she smiled broadly as she looked up to him. "So I have some ideas for the date."

"Are you sure you want to do it?" he questioned quietly. "We can go on our own date instead."

Her smile fell as she looked at him incredulously. "Your sister is my best friend," she reminded lowly. "I need to be there for her."

"Tyler's her friend, too," her boyfriend pointed out. "He and Erica will be there."

She narrowed her eyes at him, pursing her lips. "I can just go by myself and make a group of five," she stated curtly in a normal tone of voice, prompting a loud shush from the librarian at the front of the room. She whispered a sorry to the old man before turning back to her boyfriend.

"That's not what I'm saying," he assured her, his eyes filled with hurt. "But wherever we go, it'll be loud. I don't want you or Rocky having to spend the whole night signing to me so I don't feel left out."

Anna Elizabeth scooted her chair closer to his and locked her arm with his. She rested her head on his shoulder, holding her hands out so he would see. "You know I don't mind signing to you," she reminded him.

"But _I_ mind," he told her glumly. "I'm used to being by myself."

Shocked, she pulled away from him and looked to him with watering, chocolate eyes. "Are you saying you don't want to be with me anymore?" she asked defensively, completely forgetting to sign.

Dejected and embarrassed, he signed ‘again' to her, ashamed of having to ask her to sign what she said.

Hands shaking, she moved her hands to repeat her loaded question, terrified of the answer.

His eyes widening in surprise, Jensen hurriedly shook his head. "No, no," he breathed, taking her hands into his. "I only want to be with you; you're my first and last. I just don't want to be a burden for you."

"You're far from it," she told him, taking her hands back so she could sign as well.

Smiling softly, he reached out to touch her cheek and wipe away a falling tear. Then, he leaned in to kiss her when he was sure the librarian wasn't watching.

She smiled warmly at him when he pulled away, her eyes lost in his.

"First and last," she breathed happily.

* * *

  _I don't want to pretend that I'm stronger for it all._

* * *

  **After school.**

At lunch, the five teenagers decided to reconvene at the Asphalt Café once the day was over. Everyone had been given the task of coming up with an idea for the group date, and then they'd all vote on the most appealing idea or ideas.

They needed to choose something that everyone would like, though, which made it tricky. Tyler and Darla loved skateboarding and music so their ideas of a group date included going to the board park in downtown LA or a concert. Erica and Anna Elizabeth, the girliest members of the group, wanted something simple like an afternoon beach trip. Jensen wanted to go to an art gallery, and his girlfriend agreed with the idea. Darla told them that Mason wouldn't want to go to an art gallery, the board park, or even Baby Golf—after Anna Elizabeth blurted out the idea.

Erica came up with the idea of the Thrift Shop Challenge. She suggested that everyone couple off and buy the craziest things they could find on a five dollar budget. Then, the couple who managed to find the wackiest stuff would win.

Unanimously, the group decided that would be one part of their date. However, everyone but Darla also agreed to a bonfire beach trip. She had her reservations about going back to the beach with Mason, but it was four against one. So the winners of the Thrift Shop Challenge wouldn't have to chip in for whatever they decided to take to the bonfire.

Begrudgingly, Darla told Mason to meet her at the thrift shop in the back of the mall that hardly anyone went to. Like her best friend, she'd lied to her mom and said she needed to work on something for school so staying out of the eye of the pervasive paparazzi was her main priority of the night. That and having a good enough time with Mason so he didn't dump her for being forced to hang out with her high school friends.

Tony, who'd been allowed to stay with Jensen, and Hector, who begged his Aunt Trina to let him stay with them for a while, joined the group date. He piled into his car with Hector, Erica, and Tyler while Jensen and Anna Elizabeth rode with Darla. Jensen wanted to ride with his best friend, but he also wanted to ride with his girlfriend…who his best friend hated for some strange reason.

Around four that afternoon, they reached the mall and Darla's stomach bottomed out with worry. She kept wondering how her boyfriend would handle her friends. Would he think they were childish? Would he be undoubtedly sure _she_ was childish for hanging out with them?

“You look nervous,” Anna Elizabeth pointed out, leaning forward from the backseat. Her boyfriend kept his arms around her waist and steadily planted soft kisses on her shoulder.

“Just a little,” Darla budged, gripping the steering wheel tightly as she pulled into a parking spot closest to the front doors.

“My mama says that if somethin’ is meant to be then it’ll be,” her best friend announced with a chipper tone. She flinched under the tiny girl’s cold hand. “It ain’t about him likin’ us; it’s about us likin’ him. And if none of us like each other, then I’d hope you see he’s not good enough for you.”

“But I want him to be,” the taller girl sighed, her fearful eyes locked on the familiar white Sedan parked two cars away.

Anna Elizabeth patted her friend on the shoulder and crossed her fingers. “Here’s to the best,” she gleamed before jumping out of the car, Jensen not far behind.

While her brother and best friend walked hand in hand behind her, Darla wrung her hands as she made her way over to her boyfriend’s car. He had his eyes down in his lap, some of his dark brown locks hanging over his forehead.

Fear washing over her, she turned around hurriedly and bumped into Anna Elizabeth and Jensen. He let go of his girlfriend’s hand to place both of his hands on his sister’s shoulders and spun her back around. “Go,” he ordered impatiently.

Darla groaned as he pushed her toward the car. She contemplated rooting her feet into the ground to stop him, but that would only embarrass her when she fell flat on her face thanks to her nearly unbearable clumsiness.

As they got closer and the other car full of teenagers arrived at the mall, Mason looked up. Darla rapidly swatted her twin’s hands away as her boyfriend smiled at her, and she gave a weak smile back.

She wanted more than anything for all of this to be over.

The three teens stopped far enough away for the college boy to open his door and step out. “Hello,” he greeted with charm as he closed his door. He held out a hand to Jensen. “My name is Mason Cho.”

“Jensen West-Oliver,” the shorter boy returned as he shook Mason’s hand.

Mason turned to Anna Elizabeth after the exchange with Jensen and grabbed her hand, planting a small kiss on the back of her smooth skin as he bowed. “And you are?” he asked with a dazzling smile.

“Anna Elizabeth,” she gushed with a giddy laugh. She took her hand back as she laced the other with one of Jensen’s.

“Both are such beautiful names,” he breathed, capturing her eyes much to his own girlfriend’s growing annoyance.

Unable to hide her embarrassed grin, she cleared her throat and looked to the approaching group of four. She waved her hand at them with a smile, trying to set aside her awkwardness.

Tony reached them first, Hector staggering a few steps behind. Erica kept her arm tightly locked with Tyler’s as they lagged behind. Mason offered his hand, but Tony just nodded at him. “Sup,” he said as he shoved his hands into his pockets.

“I’m Mason,” the other boy introduced.

“Tony,” he returned. He tilted his head to his younger brother. “Hector.” He gestured over his shoulder with his head just as the stragglers reached the group. “Erica and Tyler.”

Finally letting go of Tyler for the first time in what felt like hours, Erica pushed past the Kerrigan boys to offer her hand to Mason so that he’d kiss it. “A pleasure,” she announced, purposefully thickening her Australian accent. From behind the Kerrigans, Tyler gave a slightly confused glare.

Staring at her array of long and colorful fake nails, Mason took her hand after a few awkward seconds and kissed it briefly before clearing his throat. “So Darla said something about the thrift shop?” he inquired, stepping back to wrap his arm around her shoulders. She moved closer to him and wrapped both of her own around his waist.

“My family does this thing called a Thrift Shop Challenge once a month,” Erica explained after Tyler took it upon himself to move up to her and relock his arm with hers. She smiled proudly. “My father used to do it all the time when he was little, and then it became a family tradition. Each person goes in with five dollars and tries to buy the craziest things they can afford—we check receipts, so no cheating. Whoever gets the weirdest stuff wins. Since there are so many of us, I thought we’d just break into couples and go from there. Winners don’t have to buy anything for the bonfire later.”

“Sounds fun,” Mason said with a small smile, putting his girlfriend slightly at ease. That ease quickly reverted back to anxiety when she remembered they still had the entire night to go.

“I don’t think we’ll need a lot for the bonfire,” Anna Elizabeth added. “Just skewers, marshmallows, and hotdogs.”

“Are we swimming?” Hector piped up. “’Cause I didn’t bring a suit.”

“We could always skinny dip,” Erica offered with a devious smile as her eyes darted from Tyler to Mason. “Even if we get caught, I’m sure they’ll admire our… _nice_ bodies.” She kept her eyes on Mason as she spoke, leading Darla to grimace as she turned to find him looking at the younger girl lustfully.

“Or we could not,” she snapped, pulling Mason around his car. “Let’s go.”

* * *

_I don't want to pretend that I'm stronger for it all._

* * *

“What was that back there?” Tyler asked quietly as he and his date sifted through one of the many clothing racks filled with the remnants of eras past. The deep frequency of his voice sent enticed shivers down Erica’s spine.

“Whatever do you mean?” she questioned coyly as her hand glossed over a neon green blazer that found its prime in the early 1980s.

“You were flirting with D’s boyfriend,” he hissed, pushing clothes out of the way to see her face clearly. “You’re supposed to be _my_ date.”

“Jealous?” she smirked, turning on her heels to make her way to a table of knick knacks.

“That’s not funny,” he snarled, stomping around the rack to join her.

“To you it’s not,” she agreed distantly, paying more attention to the array of handmade cups and silverware. “Dating is fun, and you need to switch up your partner every now and then.” She turned to him with a dazzling smile and patted his cheek condescendingly. “You know all about that, right?”

Staring off at her as she danced across the dingy beige carpet effortlessly in her ridiculously high stilettos, Tyler scowled. It was in that moment that he decided he would win her over.

* * *

_I don't want to pretend that I'm stronger for it all._

* * *

 ‘I don’t know about this guy,’ Jensen signed as he and Anna Elizabeth made their way to the register.

They’d managed to find their wacky item in less than twenty minutes. They’d both decided on an eerily realistic family portrait of huskies holding each other by the fire as it snowed outside, but he’d found a hand-painted music box with the sun and the moon kissing on the lid that he wanted to get for her. As a gag gift, she found an orange jacket with ‘Department of Erections’ scrawled onto the back of it. Though it fell short of her sense of humor, she’d tried it on because she thought he’d find it funny and he said he liked it.

She wasn’t about to tell him that she planned to wear it to seduce him.

‘I don’t know either,’ she returned after slinging the jacket over her shoulder. She chose not to speak while she signed in the event that Mason or someone else would hear. ‘He seems creepy.’

‘He flirted with another girl in front of my sister!’ her boyfriend signed animatedly.

‘I know he did,’ Anna Elizabeth acknowledged after putting all of their findings on the cashier’s table. ‘We’ll see how he acts at the bonfire.’

“Together or separate?” the cashier, an acne ridden teen with long turquoise hair and too much lip gloss, asked loudly.

“Together,” Anna Elizabeth replied in a normal speaking voice. She reached for the blue backup purse around her waist with over three hundred dollars that she made sure to hide from her mother. After her first date with Jensen, she took the liberty of withdrawing the money with Laura’s credit card to save for a rainy day.

“I’ll buy the box,” her boyfriend whispered after leaning down to her ear, embarrassed of how he might sound in front of the cashier.

Anna Elizabeth smiled and turned to kiss him on the cheek. “It’s the thought that counts,” she told him, signing as she spoke.

“Twenty dollars even,” the girl with colorful locks announced, purposefully lowering her eyes so she wouldn’t keep staring at Jensen. “You two make a cute couple.”

“Well, thank you,” the tiny girl thanked in her thick accent as she handed over a twenty dollar bill. She took the bag full of their stuff and locked one of her arms with his. She flashed one of her best pageant smiles as she twiddled her fingers in a wave. “Have a nice night!”

* * *

_I don't want to pretend that I'm stronger for it all._

* * *

“They’re already done,” Darla hissed as she discreetly pointed to her brother and best friend as they took seats at the front of the store. She sat on a stool with her arms and legs crossed while her boyfriend searched through an assortment of discarded silverware and novelty glassware. She still wasn’t excited about the group date idea and made a vow to spend as little time with her friends and their silly little game as possible while with her boyfriend.

Mason shrugged as he picked up a glass mug with profanity plastered on its circumference. “And?” he huffed, examining the mug. He held it out to her. “What about this?”

“It’s fine,” she passed off, not even looking at it.

With a low grunt, Mason set the mug down and scowled at her. “Get up and join me,” he ordered darkly. “I’m not doing this by myself.”

“I don’t even want to,” she told him snippily as she hopped down from the stool, her arms still crossed.

“Then why did you even invite me?” he spat. “First you wait forever to introduce me to your shitty little friends and now you act like a spoiled little bitch when we’re supposed to be having fun.”

“I’m not a spoiled little bitch,” she denied, displeased with his tone. She picked up a stein decorated with dancing German men in lederhosen jauntily sloshing overflowing beer mugs. “Here.”

He snatched the authentic container from her hand. “You sure fooled me,” he snarled, walking past her and knocking into her shoulder on his way to the register.

* * *

_I don't want to pretend that I'm stronger for it all._

* * *

 When everyone had paid for their item, the octet reconvened at the front of the store to show off their prizes. Tony and Hector—both of which hadn’t been exceptionally interested in the game—found a stuffed koala in a leather vest with a faux penis and testicles stitched onto it. Tyler and Erica happened across a pair of miniature fur-covered scales crafted into necklaces.

In the end, the necklaces and stuffed koala were laughable, the husky portrait was nightmare inducing, and the stein played a trumpet recreation of ‘Bavarian Beer Polka’—though none of them had ever heard the song. Mason smiled proudly at his victory, and Tyler seemed to grow slightly more ticked off at the smug college boy.

As they all exited the building and made way to their cars, Darla opted to let Jensen and Anna Elizabeth ride by themselves while she took the passenger’s seat of her boyfriend’s Sedan. She decided that they would just meet everyone else at the beach since they didn’t have to buy anything at the grocery store.

She should have just ridden with her brother and best friend.

The entire ride, Darla and Mason argued over her maturity—and eventually his. He claimed that she was being a baby by getting upset that her friends wanted to go on a group outing. He told her that she should be lucky that her friends would even care enough to get to know her boyfriend; his friends didn’t even give a damn about meeting her, and he honestly had no intention of ever introducing her.

Whatever she said to defend herself, he turned it around to make her seem like the irrational one. To no avail, she tried her best to do the same.

When they finally reached Hermosa Beach, he backhanded her and shouted that she’d made him do it for ‘running that smart mouth.’ He told her he wanted to have a nice night out with her friends since he cared about her, but she was doing everything in her power to sabotage the good time.

After a brief moment of silence, she apologized.

When they’d made up, he took her out to the oceanfront and they kicked their shoes off. She squeaked and shivered as the icy water billowed across her feet and clung to him. And before he kissed her, she promised she would be a better girlfriend.

* * *

_I don't want to pretend that I'm stronger for it all._

* * *

“I’m not sure I want to go to the beach anymore,” Anna Elizabeth announced as she climbed back into Jensen’s Mazda after the grocery shopping. “My mama said beaches ain’t fun when the sun goes down, and I ain’t think we’d be at the mall for so long.”

“So what do you want to do?” he asked, meeting her eyes as he gripped the steering wheel.

Smirking with devilish confidence, she looked to the bag from the thrift shop. She bit her lip seductively as she looked back at him with playful eyes. Propping her knees up in the seat, she leaned over to him and kissed him as soon as Tony’s Kia Forte pulled out of the parking lot. She pressed her lips hungrily against his as she grabbed his hands and positioned them on her hips.

And to her displeasure, he broke the kiss and pulled away slightly as he breathed nervously, his hands still on the hips of her pink skinny jeans. “N-now?” he stammered. “He-here? What-what about Rocky?”

“She didn’t look like she wanted us there,” she answered, pouting slightly. “Don’t you want me? I thought I could model my jacket for you.”

“We’re in a parking lot,” he reminded her quietly.

She shrugged. “We could go somewhere else,” she offered, signing along as she sat back down in her seat. “I have to be back at the school before ten and the beach is real far here. Wanna go there and pick up some condoms on the way?”

He tried to swallow back his shock, but it had formed a lump in his throat. Unable to speak, he nodded and started his car after turning around in his seat.

* * *

  _I don't want to pretend that I'm stronger for it all._

* * *

Anna Elizabeth was not making a good impression on her boyfriend’s best friend.

Tony Kerrigan had always been territorial, and his parents’ eminent divorce had only intensified his disdain for change. Jensen never kept a girlfriend for long—mainly because he never let any girl close enough to find out about his disability—so Tony never felt he had to compete for his buddy’s attention.

But the first time he saw Anna Elizabeth, Tony knew she’d be trouble.

Jensen seemed enamored with her that first day of school. Now she was taking up the majority of his time. His friend was in need, but he only cared about a stupid girl. His best friend’s parents were in the midst of a divorce and was nearly about to get kicked out of school because he couldn’t care enough about anything else. Tony needed someone to be there for him, and Anna Elizabeth was making sure it wasn’t Jensen.

In a rational perspective, Tony couldn’t get mad at Anna Elizabeth for asking Jensen to take her home. If he wanted to go home afterwards then that was on him. However, rationality had long since been forgotten in the elder Kerrigan boy.

During the bonfire, Tony did nothing but skulk off to the side. He roasted marshmallows and hotdogs over the handmade fire with everyone else, but he refused to participate in sandcastle making or anything else the group took part in.

By the end of the night, Erica and Tyler had separated from the group and sat in the back of Tony’s car making out as much as Tyler’s broken nose would allow. Hector, Darla, and Mason made sandmen in the freezing cold water while Tony watched ruefully from the fire pit.

He honestly doubted Jensen had gone home, but he thought about heading there to make his friend give him the time of day.

Things were fine until that stupid girl came along. 


End file.
